500 CLASS AVKS. 



where the last-mentioned bird resorts on his passage in sprino^, 

 and where some couples remain during the summer. This 

 led M. Vieillot into the opinion, that these two birds did not 

 traverse the same districts in their northward or southward 

 passage. Bechstein also informs us that their disposition and 

 habits are dissimilar. M. de Riocourt has remarked that the 

 collared flycatcher remains constantly during the summer on 

 the top of the highest trees, and watches the insects to seize 

 them on the wing, while the other pursues its prey in thickets, 

 and on the edges of roads : but in rainy weather, and espe- 

 cially during the back season, the first are obliged to seek their 

 food under the bushes, because the winged insects are then 

 rare on the tops of trees. 



M. Vieillot confesses that the young and the females of 

 these two races so closely resemble each other, that it is almost 

 impossible to avoid confounding them, without having regard 

 to the proportions of the first and fourth quills of the wing. 

 He particularly instances females, as he has verified this fact 

 on individuals of that sex taken on the nest. 



The males of these two races, with the exception of the 

 young before the first moulting, do not differ from the female 

 in the after season, except by a tint of gray, something more 

 brownish, and not all shaded with red on the upper parts ; 

 also by their wings and tail being of a more blackish-brown. 

 The collared males are then distinguished by the feathers 

 which compose this collar being white almost to the point, as 

 has already been observed. From these details M. Vieillot 

 considers it to result, that France possesses three distinct fly- 

 catchers, viz., the flycatcher properly so called, the collared fly- 

 catcher, and the black flycatcher without collar. According 

 to Bechstein and Meyer, there is a fourth species in Germany, 

 where it is rare. Sparman declares that there is also a fifth in 

 Sweden, but it has been proved to be a bird of a different 

 genus. 



We shall enter into a few more particulars of the two spe- 

 cies of which we have been treatinor. 



