C. H. Merrinni — Jiinh of CvnnccfiiKt. 5] 



iiiliiihil tlie (.'(nmtry iiiuiu'(li;iU'ly ;il)uul Onuigi', lur, :iltli(.Ui;li in ilir 

 woods lu'iirly I'vory week for years, I never saw it until, alter 1 liad 

 almost ilespaired ol' ever iinding it, I did succeed iu sliootinj^ a sin^de 



specimen. This was in the fall ; the next spring I saw a pair , 



and, after an absence of two years, returning to Orange, I strolled 

 through the woods, my old hunting grounds, and, to my surprise, 

 almost the tirst bird I saw was the Gi-eat-crested Flycatcher. Sub- 

 sequently I scarcely ever took a walk through the woods without 

 seeing or hearing it." A precisely parallel case occurred in tiic 

 vicinity of my home in Lewis County, northern New York. 'J'heie, 

 prior to the year 1870, they were unknown, at least so far as I can 

 ascertain, aiul it is safe to say that they were extremely rare. In 

 1870 my cousin, Mr. C. L. Bagg, shot one specimen, the tirst we luid 

 ever seen. During the next season I shot a j)air. 1 was away from 

 home in 1872, but Mr. Bagg informs me that he took several Great- 

 crested Flycatchers that year, and that they were quite common. 

 In August, 1873, I shot eight in about an hour's time, ami since then 

 they l)ave been one of our commonest species, breeding abundantly 

 in tlie tall maple and birch forests, where their charactei-istic, but 

 rather harsh cry, may be heard at any hour of the day throughout 

 the entire season. 



Regarding its former scarcity in Connecticut, Linsley said "a 

 specimen of the Great-crested Fly-catcher was shot by me in the 

 spring of 1838, in my front yard, the only living individual of this 

 bird I have ever seen in this State,"* and Nuttall observed that it 

 was "nearly unknown in New England. "f That it is now really a 

 common bird in southern Connecticut, at least, is certain. However, 

 we must take into consideration the fact that these gentlemen (Nutt- 

 all and Linsley) were probably iu)t familiar with its charac-teristic — I 

 may even say diagnostic — note, and my experience with the l>ird has 

 been that it is i-arely seen, unless, guided by its note, it is [»ersist- 

 ently followed up, and even then one is otten at his wits end to get 

 a shot, so well does the l)ird keep concealed amongst tlie foliage. 

 And surely it is not particularly conducive to traiupiillity ot mind to 

 stand, up to one's knees in water, amidst myriads of mosquitoes, in a 

 hot day in summer, gazing intently up into a tall tree, where, diicctly 

 overhead, the cry of the (4reat- crested Flycatcher is constantly 

 heard, and yet the most careful search fails to reveal the exact where- 



* Am. Jour. Sci. and Arts, vol. xliv, No. 2, p. 259, April, 1873. 

 f Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and Canada. Hy Tliouias 

 Nuttall. Vol. i. Land Birds, p. 271, 1832. 



