( 392 ) 

 THE PIPIRY FLYCATCHER. 



MUSCICAPA DOMINICENSIS, BriSS. 

 PLATE CLXX. Male. 



Having landed on one of the Florida Keys, I scarcely had time to 

 cast a glance over the diversified vegetation which presented itself, when 

 I observed a pair of birds mounting perpendicularly in the air twit- 

 tering with a shrill continued note new to me. The country itself was 

 new : it was what my mind had a thousand times before conceived a 

 tropical scene to be. As I walked over many plants, curious and 

 highly interesting to me, my sensations were joyous in the highest de- 

 gree, for I saw that in a few moments I should possess a new subject, on 

 which I could look with delight, as one of the great Creator's marvellous 

 works. 



I was on one of those yet unknown islets, which the foot of man has 

 seldom pressed. A Flycatcher unknown to me had already presented it- 

 self, and the coing of a Dove never before heard come on my ear. I felt 

 some of that pride, which doubtless pervades the breast of the discoverer 

 of some hitherto unknown land. Although desirous of obtaining the 

 birds before me, I had no wish to shoot them at that moment. My gun 

 lay loosely on my arms, my eyes were rivetted on the Flycatchers, my 

 ears open to the soft notes of the Doves. Reader, such are the moments, 

 amid days of toil and discomfort, that compensate for every privation. 

 It is on such occasions that the traveller feels most convinced, that the 

 farther he proceeds, the better will be his opportunities of observing the 

 results of the Divine conception. What else, I would ask of you, can 

 be more gratifying to the human intellect ! 



Delighted and amused I stood for a while contemplating the beauti- 

 ful world that surrounded me, and from which man would scarcely retire 

 with willingness, had not the Almighty ordained it otherwise. But action 

 had now to succeed, and I quickly procured some of the Flycatchers. 

 Their habits too, I subsequently studied for weeks in succession, and the 

 result of my observations I now lay before you. 



About the 1st of April, this species reaches the Florida Keys, and 

 spreads over the whole of them, as far as Cape Florida, or perhaps some- 



