WHITE-EYED FLYCATCHER. , 145 



sidered it a very scarce species. He could give me no information of the 

 female. The one from which the figure in the plate vras taken, was 

 shot in Mr. Bartram's woods, near Philadelphia, among the branches of 

 dogwood, in the month of October. It appears to belong to a particular 

 family, or subdivision of the Muscicapa genus, among which are the 

 White-eyed, the Yellow-throated, and several others already described 

 in the present work. Why one species should be so rare, while another, 

 much resembling it, is so numerous, at least a thousand for one, is a 

 question I am unable to answer ; unless by supposing the few we meet 

 with here to be accidental stragglers from the great body, which may 

 have their residence in some other parts of our extensive continent. 



The Solitary Flycatcher is five inches long, and eight inches in 

 breadth ; cheeks and upper part of the head and neck, a fine bluish 

 gray ; breast pale cinereous ; flanks and sides of the breast yellow ; 

 whole back and tail coverts green olive ; wings nearly black ; the first 

 and second row of coverts tipped with white ; the three secondaries next 

 the body edged with pale yellowish white ; the rest of the quills bor- 

 dered with light green; tail slightly forked, of the same tint as the 

 wings, and edged with light green ; from the nostrils a line of white 

 proceeds to and encircles the eye ; lores black ; belly and vent white ; 

 upper mandible black ; lower light blue ; legs and feet light blue ; eyes 

 hazel. 



Species X. MUSCICAPA CANTATRIX. 



WHITE-EYED FLYCATCHER 



[Plate XVIII. Fig. 6.] 



Muscicapa novehoracen.iis, Gmel. Si/st. i., p. 947. — Hanging Flycatcher, Lath. Syn. 

 Supp. p. 174. — Arct. Zool. p. 389, No. Hi.— Muscicapa cantatrix, the little Do- 

 mestic Flycatcher, or Green Wren, Bartram, p. 290.* 



This is another of the Cow-bird's adopted nurses ; a lively, active, 

 and sociable little bird, possessing a strong voice for its size, and a great 

 variety of notes ; and singing with little intermission, from its first 

 arrival about the middle of April to a little. before its departure in Sep- 

 tember. On the twenty-seventh of February I heard this bird in the 

 southern parts of the state of Georgia, in considerable numbers, sing- 

 ing with great vivacity. They had only arrived a few days before. Its 

 arrival in Pennsylvania, after an interval of seven weeks, is a proof 

 that our birds of passage, particularly the smaller species, do not migrate 



* Vireo musicus, Vieillot^ Ois. de I' Am. Sept. pi. 52. 

 Vol. II.— 10 



