164 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 



ing inflection I know that the great-crested fly- 

 catcher has arrived. There is always an excite- 

 ment about the event that prompts you to seize 

 your hat and rush out to find him. And a sight 

 of him up in a tree top is worth more than one 

 walk! 



By the side of the other flycatchers in pigeon- 

 hole No. 1, he stands at the head of the family. 

 What an aristocratic bearing his great crest gives 

 him I And look at his olive coat, his ash-gray vest, 

 and his bright sulphur - yellow knickerbockers ! 

 You almost expect him to produce wig and shoe- 

 buckles ! Then compare his manners with those 

 of his plain gray cousins. Do you .suppose he 

 could let his wings and his fine rufous tail hang 

 down as the least flycatcher, the pho3be, and the 

 wood pewee do ? And could such a dignified bird 

 demean himself with the petty bickerings of the 

 kingbird, or the recklessness of the warlike least 

 flycatcher ? 



The great-crest flies restlessly among the tree 

 tops, uttering his shrill cry, and soliloquizing in a 

 low warbling twitter. He also has a loud short 

 chatter reserved for occasion, and I have seen him 

 on a tree by the house scolding away with a whee 

 ree. 



His nest shows all the eccentricity of genius. 

 It is usually made in a knot-hole, at varying 

 heights from the ground. But the strangest thing 

 about it, and that which distinguishes it from the 



