TYRANNIDJS-TIIE FLYCATCHERS. 323 



Mr. Audubon states that this Flycatcher readies the Florida Keys about 

 the first ol' April. He describes their usual flight as performed by a con- 

 stant llutter of the wings, except when in chase, when they exhibit con- 

 siderable power and speed, lie noticed them pin-sue larger birds, such as 

 Herons, ('rows, Cuckoos, Grakles, and Hawks, following ihem (juite a dis- 

 tance. They did not molest the Doves. They built their nests in a nuunier 

 similar to the Kingbird, on the horizontal I. ranches of the mangrove, almost 

 invariably on the western side of the tree and (jf the island. Some were not 

 more than two feet above the water, others were twenty feet. On one of the 

 keys, although of small size, he saw several of their nest.s, and more than 

 a dozen of the Ijirds living amicid)ly together. 



Dr. J. G. Cooper, who visited Florida in the spring of ISoU, informed me, 

 by letter, on his return, that when he reached Cape Florida, March 8, none 

 of this species were to be seen on any of the keys. The first he noticed were 

 about the first of May, near Fort Dallas on the maiidand. As, however, it 

 rarely appears at this place, he sui)poses they reached the keys some weeks 

 sooner. About May 1-4 he found several pairs at the Cape, and, going up 

 the coast to New Smyrna, he found them altundant about the marshy islands. 

 On the first of June, with a companion, he went in a small boat for the ex- 

 jjress purpose of finding their nests ; and, pushing IIks boat about among the 

 islands which almost filled ^Ios(|uito Lagoon, he discovered three in one after- 

 noon. They were all built among the small branchl'S of low dead mangrove- 

 trees, about ten feet from the ground, formed of a loose, open flooring of 

 small twigs, witii scarcely any lining of a finer nuiterial. One contained ibur 

 eggs half hatched, another three young and one egg, the third four young 

 just hatched. He preserved one nest and all the eggs, and presented them 

 to the National ^luseum in Washington. The old birds showed no resent- 

 ment, and neither came near nor followed him, difl'ering very much in this 

 respect from the fearless and devoted Kingbird. The only notes this bird 

 was heard to utter were loud and harsh rattling cries. Dr. Bachman in- 

 formed Dr. Coojjcr that these birds had become quite regular summer visi- 

 tants of Charleston, where they continued to breed each season. Dr. Cooper 

 saw none away from the Florida coast, and thinks that none go inland. 



The eggs of this species measure from 1 to 1.05 inches in length, and from 

 .70 to .72 of an inch in breadth. They are of an oblong oval shape, vari- 

 ously marked with large blotches and smaller spots of purple, red-brown, 

 and a dark purplish-brown. The latter color, in a few cases, is found in 

 large masses, covering nearly a fifth of the entire surface of the egg ; not 

 inaptly compared by ^Ir. Gosse to the sinuous outlines of lauds, as repre- 

 sented on a terrestrial globe. 



