WHITE-EYED FLYCATCHER. 247 



person thinking the snake-slough is peculiarly grateful to the 

 young birds which are intended to lie upon it ; and another,, that 

 the presence of the cast slough acts as a scarecrow, and frightens 

 away obnoxious birds. One conjecture is as good as another, 

 and both are absurdly bad. 



The species which we have now to notice is the Eed-Eyed 

 Flycatcher (Muscicapa olivacea) popularly known as " Whip- 

 Tom-Kelly," from its peculiar articulate cry, which is said to 

 bear a strangely exact resemblance to the words "Tom Kelly, 

 Whip-tom-kel-ly," and is uttered so loudly and briskly, that it 

 can be heard at a considerable distance. It inhabits a tolerably 

 wide range of country, being found from Georgia to the St. 

 Lawrence, and in many parts is plentiful. 



The nest of the Eed-Eyed Flycatcher is small and very neatly 

 made, and, contrary to the usual custom of pensile nests, is 

 placed near the ground, seldom at a height of more than five 

 feet. Bushes and dwarf trees, such as dogwood or saplings, are 

 usually chosen by the bird when it looks about for a branch 

 wherefrom to hang its nest. A wonderful array of materials 

 is employed by the feathered architect, which makes use of bits 

 of hornets' nests, dried leaves, flax-fibres, strips of vine bark, 

 fragments of paper and hair, and binds all these articles firmly 

 together with the sUk produced by some caterpillars. The 

 lining is made of fine grasses, hair, and the delicate bark of the 

 vine. 



The nest is wonderfully strong, so compact indeed, that after 

 it has served the purpose of its architect, it is usui-ped by 

 other birds in the following year, and saves them the trouble of 

 building entire nests of their own. Even the mammalia receive 

 some benefit from the nest, for the field-mouse often takes pos- 

 session of it, and rears its young in the pensile cradle. 



An allied species, the White-Eyed Flycatcher (Muscicapa 

 cantrix), builds a very pretty pensile nest, and uses so much 

 old newspaper in the construction of its home, that it has gone 

 by the name of the Politician. The other materials used in the 

 structure of the nest are bits of old rotten wood, vegetable fibres, 

 and other Ught substances, woven together with wild sUk, and 

 the lining is mostly of dried grasses and hair. 



The form of the nest is nearly that of an inverted cone, and it 

 is suspended by part of the rim to the bend of a species of smilax. 



