50 C. H. Merriam — Birds of Connecticut. 



Butcher Bird chase a Barred Owl for the sj)ace of lialf an hour, 

 closely following him to and fro through the woods, till I put an end 

 to his misery hy shooting both. 



1 20. MilvulUS forficatUS (Gmelin) Sw. Swallow-tailed Flycatcher. 



An extremely rare accidental visitor. The only record of its 

 capture in this State is that recently published by Mr. H. A. Purdie : 

 "Mr. Jencks informs me that a specimen of this s])ecies was shot by 

 Mr. Carpenter, at Wauregan, Conn., about April 27, 1876. The 

 bird first attrac^ted Mr. Carpenter's attention by its o])ening and 

 closing the tail while flying about a small sheet of water in quest of 

 insects. The only other Eastern United States capture of this spe- 

 cies, is a male taken at Trenton, New Jersey, a few years ago, as 

 recorded by T)r. C. C. Abbott."* Dr. Abbott's specimen was shot 

 on the 15th of April, 1872, and " when captured, was busily engaged 

 in picking semi-dormant insects from the bark of the trees ; creeping 

 about very much as is the custom of Certhia familiaris, and all the 

 while opening and shutting the long scissor-like tail."f Its proper 

 habitat is the lower part of the Mississip])i Valley and Texas, thence 

 southward into South America. 



121. MyiarchUS CrinitUS (Linnet) Cabanis. Great-crested Flycatcher. 



A common summer resident, generally placing its well-known 

 snake-skin-lined nest in the hollow limb of some old ai)ple tree, or 

 rotten fence-post. Arrives early in May (May 8, isV-"}, Hartford, 

 Sage), and Mr. W. W. C'oe has taken its nest (i'our eggs) as late as 

 June 13th, (1873). The liistory of this bird attbrds us a remarkal)ly 

 good example of the change in habilat of a s]>ecies during a compara- 

 tively brief period of years. 



Mr. T. Martin Tri])pe, in one of his interesling articles on "The 

 Irregidar Migrations of l>irds,"| thus details his experience with the 

 bird in question : " In a series of sever;il years close observation at 

 Orange, New Jersey, I searched for the (xreat-crested Flycatcher 

 {^Mylarch/iis crhiitits), year after year, but all in vain ; and what, made 

 the fact very singular was, that twelve oi- lifteen miles off, I had 

 seen the l>ird sufficiently often to convince me that if not common, 

 it was by no means rare. Yet lor some inex}>licable reason it did not 



* I'.iilk'tin Nuttall Ornitholofjical Club, vol. ii, No. 1, p. 21, .Tan., 1877. 

 \ American Naturalist, vol. vi, No. (I, p. I^fi?, June, 1872. 

 X Am. Nat., vol. vii, No. 7, p. :',90-91, .Tuly, 1873. 



