SMALL BLUE-.“RAY FLYCATCHER. 199 
flesh colored. ‘The chief difference between this and the male, in the 
markings of their plumage, is, that the female is destitute of the black 
bar through the eyes, and the bordering one of pale bluish white. 
—_—_~>—— 
SMALL BLUE-GRAY FLYCATCHER, — MUSCICAPA 
CQERULEA. — Fic. 87. 
Motacilla coerulea, Turton, Syst. i. p. 612.— Blue Flycatcher, Edw. pl. 302.— 
Regulus griseus, the Little Disich grey Wren, Bartram, p. 291. — Le figuier gris 
de tr, Buff, v. p. 309.—Cervlean Warbler, Arct. Zool. ii. No. 299.— Lath. 
Syn. iv. p. 490, No. 127. —- Peale’s Museum, No. 6829. 
CULICIVORA CQ@RULEA. —Swarnson.* 
Culicivora, Sw. New Groups in Orn. Zool. Journ. No. 11, p. 359.— Sylvia 
coerulea, Bonap. Synop. p. 85,— The Blue Gray Flycatcher, Aud. pl. 84, male 
and female; Orn. Biog. 1. p. 431. 
Tis diminutive species, but for the length of the tail, would rank 
next to our Humming Bird in magnitude. It is a very dexterous 
flycatcher, and has also something of the manners of the Titmouse, 
with whom, in early spring, and fall, it frequently associates. It 
arrives 'in Pennsylvania, from the south, about the middle of Apnl; 
and, about the beginning of May, builds its nest, which it generally 
fixes among the twigs of a tree, sometimes at the height of ten feet 
from the ground, sometimes fifty feet high, on the extremities of the 
tops of a high tree in the woods. This nest is formed of very sligh. 
and perishable materials, — the husks of buds, stems of old leaves, 
withered blossoms of weeds, down from the stalks of fern, coated on 
the-outside with gray lichen, and lined with a few horse hairs. Yet 
in this frail receptacle, which one would think scarcely sufficient to 
admit the body of the owner, and sustain even its weight, does the 
female Cow Bird venture to deposit her egg; and to the manage- 
ment of these pygmy nurses leaves the fate of her helpless young. 
The motions. of ‘his little bird are quick; he seems always on the 
look-out for insects; darts about from one part of the tree to another, 
with hanging wings and erected tail, making a feeble chirping, isee, 
tsee, no louder than a mouse. Though so small in itself, it is ambi- 
tious of hunting on the highest branches, and is seldom seen among 
the humbler thickets, It remains with us until the 20th or 28th of 
September ; after which we see no more of it until the succeeding 
spring. I observed this bird near Savannah, in Georgia, early in 
March; but it does not winter: even in the southern parts of that 
state. : 
The length of this species is four inches and a half; extent, six and 
a half; front, and line over the eye, black; bill, black, very slender, 
* This species will represent another lately-formed genus, of which the Musci- 
capa stenura of Temminck’s Pl. coloriées forms the type. It is a curious group, 
connecting Tyrannula, Setophaga, the Flycatchers, and the Sylviade.— Ev. 
