282 LAND-BIRDS. 



tremely energetic, and often show it in their indefinably char- 

 acteristic voice, which, though never strictly musical, is yet 

 pleasing and striking. The Great Crested Flycatchers build 

 their nests in the hollows of trees, and the Pewees about 

 buildings or on rocks ; but the others build their nests (vary- 

 ing in neatness) in bushes or trees.* The eggs are four or 

 five, and white, creamy, or buff, in most cases unmarked or 

 else spotted with brown and lilac. 



The three genera of smaller Flycatchers may be distinguished 

 as f oUows : — 



Sayornis (III) : tail forked, frequently flirted ; tarsus 

 longer than the middle toe. Contopus (IV) : tail slightly 

 forked, never (?) flirted ; tarsus shorter than the middle toe. 

 Umpidonax (V) : tail even or rounded, and depressed upon 

 the utterance of the very abrupt, energetic sow^-note, when 

 the head also is thrown back. 



I. TYRANNUS. 



A. TTEANNUS. (^Tyrant Flycatcher.^ King-hird. Bee 

 " Martin." Field " Martin." A common summer resident 

 in New England, f 



a. About eight inches long. Above, very dark gray, 

 slightly brownish on the wings. Crown and tail, black ; the 

 latter broadly white-tipped, the former with erectile crown- 

 feathers touched with orange or vermilion. (Many wing- 

 feathers, and the outermost tail-feathers, white-edged.) 



[The Gray King-bird (T. dominicensis) is about nine 

 inches long, and is rather grayer, with the " tail conspicuously 

 forked," and not broadly white-tipped. " An immature spe- 

 cimen was taken by Mr. Charles I. Goodale, at Lynn, on 

 October 23, 1868 " ; " its usual habitat being Florida and 

 the West Indies."] 



h. The nest of our King-bird is commonly placed from 

 five to fifteen feet above the ground, in a horizontal fork, or 



* The Yellow- Ijellied Flycatcher ceptiona to the above rule amoDg our 



places its nest in mossy banks and western Flycatchers. — W. B. 



among the roots of fallen trees — never, t A common summer resident of 



so far as is known, on the branches of practically the whole of New England. 



trees or bushes. There are other ex- — W. B. 



