288 LITTLE TYRANT FLYCATCHER. 



A female has the oesophagus 2 inches 1 twelfth long ; the stomach 

 6 twelfths by 4| twelfths ; the intestine 9^ inches long, its greatest 

 width scarcely 1 twelfth ; the cceca 2 twelfths long, and about a quarter 

 of a twelfth wide. 



LITTLE TYRANT FLYCATCHER. 



MUSCICAPA PVSILLA. 

 PLATE CCCCXXXIV. Male. 



This small and plainly-coloured species, first described by my friend 

 William Swain son, Esq. in the Fauna Boreali- Americana, under the 

 name of " Tyrannula pusilla,'''' is a common inhabitant of the northern 

 and north-western parts of America, but has not, I believe, been known 

 to pass along our Atlantic shores. Dr Richardson, who observed it 

 in the Fur Countries, says that " it was first seen by us at Carlton 

 House, on the 19th of May, flitting about for a few days among low 

 bushes on the banks of the river, after which it retired to the moist 

 shady woods lying farther north." 



My friend Thomas Ndttall, Esq. procured this bird on Wapatoo 

 Island, which is formed by the junction of the Multnomah with the 

 Columbia, 20 miles long, and 10 broad. The land is high and extremely 

 fertile, and in most parts supplied with a heavy growth of cotton-wood, 

 ash, and sweet-willow. But the chief wealth of the island consists of 

 the numerous ponds in the interior, abounding with the common arrow- 

 head, Sagittaria sagittifoUa, to the root of which is attached a bulb 

 growing beneath it in the mud. This bulb, to which the Indians give 

 the name of Wapatoo, is the great article of food, and almost the staple 

 article of commerce, on the Columbia. It is never out of season, so 

 that at all times of the year the valley is frequented by the neighbour- 

 ing Indians, who come to gather it. It is collected chiefly by the wo- 

 men, who take a light canoe in a pond, where the water is as high as 

 the breast, and by means of their toes, separate the root from the bulb, 

 which on being freed from the mud rises immediately to the surface of 



