( 4G ) 



SELBY'S FLY-CATCHER. 



MuscicAPA Selbii. 



PLATE IX. Male. 



The works of every student of nature are always pleasing to me, 

 and it is with delight that I see the number of such students daily in- 

 creasing; but when I meet with one who, regardless of the labour attend- 

 ing upon figuring in their full size the objects from which he has derived 

 his knowledge, my heart expands, and I hail his name with enthusiasm. 

 Mr Selby's great work is so well known to the scientific world, that I 

 need only here mention the favour which its accomplished author has con- 

 ferred upon me by permitting me to decorate one of my pages with his 

 name, in quality of foster-father to a beautiful and hitherto unknown 

 species of Fly-catcher. 



As this bird, to the day on which my engraving of it appeared, had 

 not been described, or, in as far as I know, obtained by any other person 

 than myself, notwithstanding the great number of individuals who have 

 of late years been searching our States for new and rare species, it must 

 ■be considered as of very unfrequent occurrence, and probably as seldom 

 going farther north or east than the place where I discovered it. More- 

 over, it is so scarce even there, that in all my walks I only shot three in- 

 dividuals, in the course of nine years. In no instance have I been able 

 to cultivate its society longer than a few minutes, as, before it might 

 escape from me, I was obhged to shoot it, in order to satisfy myself that 

 it was indeed a different bird from any figured or described in books. 



My journal, under the date of 1st July 1821, contains the following 

 statement : — " I found this bird about three miles from St Francisville in 

 Louisiana, whilst engaged in searching for a Turkey, which I had 

 wounded. It was afternoon, and the heat oppressive. I saw it inno- 

 cently approaching us until within a few yards, anxiously looking, as if 

 trying to discover our intentions ; but as we stood motionless, it once 

 came so near that I could easily have reached it with my gun barrel. 

 It moved nimbly among the twigs of the low bushes, making now and 

 then short dashes at flies, which it swallowed after kilhng them under 

 foot, as many other Fly-catchers are in the habit of doing, then peeping at 

 us, and again setting off in pursuit of flies. The snapping of its bill 



