134 RED-EYED FLYCATCHER. 
and energetic song, which it continues, as it hunts among the thick 
foliage, sometimes for an hour with little intermission. In the months 
of May, June, and to the middle of July, it is the most distinguishable 
of all the other warblers of the forest; and even in August, long after 
the rest have almost all become mute, the notes of the Red-eyed Fly- 
catcher are frequently heard with unabated spirit. These notes are 
in short, emphatical bars, of two, three, or four syllables. In Jamaica, 
where this bird winters, and is probably also resident, it is called, as 
Sloane informs us, Whip-tom-kelly, from an imagined resemblance of 
its notes to these words. And, indeed, on attentively listening for 
some time to this bird in his full ardor of song, it requires but little 
of imagination to fancy that you hear it pronounce these words, “Tom- 
kelly, whip-tom-kelly!” very distinctly. It inhabits from Georgia to 
the River St. Lawrence, leaving Pennsylvania about the middle of 
September. 
This bird builds, in the month of May, a small, neat, pensile nest, 
generally suspended between two twigs of a young dog-wood or other 
small sapling. It is hung by the two upper edges, seldom ata greater 
height than four or five feet from the ground. It is formed of pieces 
of hornets’ nests, some flax, fragments of withered leaves, slips of vine 
bark, bits of paper, all glued together with the saliva of the bird, and 
the silk of caterpillars, so as to be very compact; the inside is lined 
with fine slips of grape-vine bark, fibrous grass, and sometimes h tir. 
These nests are so durable, that I have often known them to resist the 
action of the weather for a year; and, in one instance, I have fouad 
the nest of the Yellow-Bird built in the cavity of one of those of the 
preceding year. The mice very often take possession of them after 
they are abandoned by the owners. The eggs are four, sometimes 
five, pure white, except near the great end, where they are marked 
with a few small dots of dark brown or reddish. They generally raise 
two broods in the season. 
The Red-eyed Flycatcher is one of the adopted nurses of the Cow 
Bird, and a very favorite one, showing all the symptoms of affection 
for the foundling, and as much solicitude for its safety, as if it were its 
own. The figure of that singular bird, accompanied by a particular 
account of its history, is given in Fig. 83. 
Before I take leave of this bird, it may not be amiss to observe that 
there is another, and a rather less species of Flycatcher, somewhat 
resembling the Red-eyed, which is frequently found in its company. 
Its eyes are hazel; its back more cinereous than the other, and it has 
a single light streak over the eye. The notes of this bird are low, 
somewhat. plaintive, but warbled out with great sweetness, and form 
a striking contrast with those of the Red-eyed Flycatcher. I think it 
probable that Dr. Barton had reference to this bird when he made the 
following remarks, (see his Fragments of the Natural History of Penn- 
sylvania, page 19 :) — “ Muscicapa olivacea. —1 do not think with Mr. 
Pennant that this is the same bird as the Whip-tom-kelly of the West 
Indies. Our bird has no such note, buta great variety of soft, tender, 
and agreeable notes. It inhabits forests, and does not, like the 
West India bird, build a pendulous nest.” Had the learned professor, 
however, examined into this matter with his usual accuracy, he would 
have found that the JMuscicapa olivacea, and the soft and tender song- 
