FLYCATCHERS. 297 



of birches, maples, and beeches, and do not show the fond- 

 ness for low growth and wet lands, so often observable in 

 Traill's Flycatcher. They generally return every year to 

 their chosen home, and apparently, when once mated, are 

 wedded for life. Occasionally, however, an intruder presents 

 himself, in the hope of winning the female's affections, and 

 in these cases the male becomes irritated and furious. But 

 ordinarily, though of a rather jealous disposition, he is not 

 very pugnacious. After becoming settled in their summer 

 homes, the Least Flycatchers often limit their movements, 

 and confine themselves to some group of trees much more 

 closely than I have observed any other birds to do. This 

 may be due to a desire to protect their homes. They are 

 both less expert and less active than many other Flycatchers, 

 and sometimes remain for a considerable length of time on 

 one perch, uttering their loud song-notes. They do not 

 depend exclusively upon insects in the air, but occasionally 

 pick them up in the foliage of trees, among which they 

 pass their days, though they sometimes alight on a fence or 

 the top of a weed. They flirt their tails, but never in the 

 decided and continuous manner of the Common Pewee, 

 and, on delivering their song-note, throw the body back, in 

 the manner of Traill's Flycatcher. 



d. This song-note is loud and emphatic, but whoUy unmu- 

 sical, and resembles the syllables che-hec. It is frequently 

 repeated, occasionally at night, often for half an hour at 

 a time, and sometimes so hurriedly as to become an unmu- 

 sical song. The other notes are a single whit, and queru- 

 lous exclamations (wheu, when, when) which are more or 

 less guttural and subdued. 



The Least Flycatchers, though common and well character- 

 ized by their striking notes, escaped the attention of Wilson, 

 and apparently that of Audubon, until it was called to the 

 then new species by Professor Baird. This is an excellent 

 instance of the rule that the more one knows, the more one 

 sees, though it is natural to suppose that the reverse might 

 be the case. Hence, " most discoveries are accidental, or, at 

 least, indirect." Young students, on beginning to study 



