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Bird -Lore 



is eminently characteristic. Their food of insects is captured ori the wing 

 by a sudden dart from a perch, to which they usually return. While 

 waiting for their prey the wings are often drooped, and in some species 

 the tail is frequently wagged. 



Song. — By the systematist the Flycatchers are spoken of as "songless 

 Passeres." That is, while agreeing in structure with other perching 

 birds in most respects, they differ from them in possessing a less highly 

 developed syrinx or lower larynx — the voice-making organ. Naturally, 

 the birds with the best instrument can and do produce the sweetest, 

 most intricate music, but it does not follow that those which are not so 

 well provided are silent. Song, therefore, in proportion to the develop- 

 ment of the musical apparatus is as much a possession of the Flycatchers 

 as it is of the Thrushes. They sing, but they do not sing so well as 

 their talented distant relatives. Indeed, the songs of Flycatchers, reflecting 

 their imperfect instruments, are primitive in character. 



What Bird is This? 



Field Description.. — Length, 5.90 in. Crown streaked chestnut and black, with an ashy medium line; nape 

 grayish; back streaked with rufous, buff, and black, wings and tail more or less rufous; under parts whitish, ashy 

 on the breast, brownish on the sides; abdomen whitish. 



Note. — Each number of Bird-Lore will contain a photograph, from specimens in 

 the American Museum of Natural History, of some comparatively little-known bird, 

 or little-known plumage, the name of which will be withheld until the succeeding 

 number of the magazine. 



The species figured in October is Nelson's Sparrow. 



