LITTLE TYRANT FLYCATCHER. 289 



the water, and is thrown into the canoe. This plant is found through 

 the whole extent of the Columbia Valley, but does not grow farther 

 eastward. 



" I observed," he continues, " a male of this species very active and 

 cheerful, making his chief residence in a spreading oak, on the open 

 border of a piece of forest. As usual, he took his station at the extre- 

 mity of a dead branch, from whence, at pretty quick intervals, he darted 

 after passing insects. When at rest, he raised his erectile crest, and 

 in great earnest called out sishui, siskui, and sometimes tslshea, tsishea, 

 in a lisping tone, rather quickly, and sometimes in great haste, so as 

 to run both calls together. This brief, rather loud, quaint and mono- 

 tonous ditty, was continued for hours together, at which time, so great 

 was our little actor's abstraction, that he allowed a near approach 

 without any material apprehension. As I could not discover any nest, 

 I have little doubt it was concealed either in some knot or laid on some 

 horizontal branch." 



I found this species both in Newfoundland and on the coast of Labra- 

 dor in considerable numbers. In the latter country, where the bushes 

 are low and the fir-trees seldom attain a height of thirty feet, I observed 

 that it preferred for its residence the narrow and confined valleys which 

 at that season (July) are clothed with luxuriant herbage, and abound 

 in insects, to which this little Flycatcher gives chase with great acti- 

 vity, returning, as is the well-known habit of all our small species, to 

 the twig or top of the plant which it has selected for its look-out sta- 

 tion. Two males I observed one moi'ning, were constantly engaged in 

 pursuing each other, when at times they would mount to some height 

 in the air, there meet, snap their bills violently, separate, and return to 

 their posts. Their continued cries induced me to believe that they had 

 females and nests in the valley ; and after searching a good while, I had the 

 gratification of finding one of them placed between two small twigs of 

 a bush not above four feet in height. This nest was composed of de- 

 licate dry grasses and fibrous roots, so thinly arranged as to enable me 

 to see through it. It contained five eggs, so nearly resembling those 

 of our Little Red-start Flycatcher, that, had I not started the female 

 from the nest, I should have been induced to pronounce them the pro- 

 perty of that bird. Theymeasured five and a half eighths by four-eightlis, 

 and were rather sharp at the smaller end, pure white, thinly spotted, 

 and marked with different tints of light red, with a few dots of umber, 



VOL. V. I- 



