PASSERES — SYLVICOLIDjE — CULICIVORA. 
109 
GENUS CULICIVORA. Swainson. 
Bill moderate, depressed, rapidly attenuated to a slender tip. Upper mandible with a distinct 
ridge; the tip narrow, bent. Bristles at the base of the bill. Tarsus very slender, with 
the upper scutella indistinct, longer than the middle toe : hind toe larger. Second or 
fourth quill longest. Tail longer than the body, slender, rounded. 
Obs. This genus was founded by Swainson on a species detached from Muscicapa, and 
connects this family with the succeeding. 
THE BLUE-GREY GNATCATCHER 
CULICIVORA CCERULEA, 
PLATE LVI. FIG. 126 (Male). 
(STATE COLLECTION.) 
Muscicapa ccei'ulea, Wilson, Am. Orn. Vol. 2, p. 164, pi. 18, fig. 5. 
Sylvia ccerulea. Bonaparte, Ann. Lyc. N. York, Vol. 2, p. 85. 
Muscicapa id, Audubon, folio, pi. 84; Orn. Biog. Vol. 1, p. 431. 
Blue-grey Sylvan Flycatcher. Nuttall, Man. Ornith. Vol. 1, p. 297. 
Culicivora ccerulea , Bonap. Audubon, B. of A. Vol. 2, p. 244, pi. 70. Giraud, Birds of Long Island, p. 46. 
Characteristics. Bluish grey; beneath bluish white. Tail black. Female, without the 
black band over the forehead and eyes. Length, four and a half inches. 
Description, of a young male shot May 5, Orange county. Bill somewhat straight, 
flattened, curved at the tip : notch conspicuous. A few porrect bristles at the base of the 
bill. Tail rounded, 1‘3 longer than the tips of the folded wings. Second quill-feather 
longest. 
Color. Light blue. Summit of the head with an anterior black marginal stripe. Rump 
white. Primaries brown, edged on their external vanes with white. The outer tail-feather 
white on both vanes for more than two-thirds of its whole length; the next white along the 
greater part of its outer vane, and on its inner vane towards the tip; the suceeding feather 
obscurely tipped with white. Throat soiled white; breast bluish white ; belly and vent pure 
white. The adult male has the dark black band of the frontlet extending in a narrow line 
over the eye ; the tail glossy black. Female, with the tints of blue not so bright, and the 
black frontlet and line over the eye wanting. 
Length, 4'5. Alar extent, 6 - 5. 
This lively little Gnatcatcher is found, according to Lichtenstein, in Mexico during the 
winter. It arrives in Louisiana about the middle of March, and in this State is seen in the 
