738 YELLOW-THROATED FLYCATCHER. 
eed, preed, &c. It is often heard in company with the Red-eyed 
Fiyeatchor (Muscicapa olivacea) or Whip-tom-kelly of Jamaica; the 
loud, energetic notes of the latter, mingling with the soft, languid war- 
ble of the former, producing an agreeable effect, particularly during 
the buming heat of noon, when almost every other songster but 
these two is silent. Those who loiter through the shades of our 
magnificent forests at that hour, will easily recognize both species. 
It arrives from the south early in May; and returns again with its 
young about the middle of September. Its nest, which is sometimes 
fixed on the upper side of a limb, sometimes on a horizontal branch 
among the twigs, generally on a tree, is composed outwardly of thin 
strips of the bark of grape vines, moss, lichens, &c., and lined with 
fine fibres of such like substances; the eggs, usually four, are white, 
thinly dotted with black, chiefly near the great end. Winged insects 
are its principal food. . 
Whether this species has been described before or not, | must 
leave to the sagacity of the reader, who has the opportunity of exam- 
ining European works of this kind, to discover.* I have met with 
no description in Pennant, Buffon, or Latham, that will properly apply 
to this bird, which may perhaps be owing to the imperfection of the 
account, rather than ignorance of the species, which is by no means 
rare. 
The Yellow-throated Flycatcher is five inches and a half long, and 
nine inches from tip to tip of the expanded wings; the upper part of 
the head, sides of the neck, and the back, are of a fine yellow olive; 
throat, breast, and line over the eye, which it nearly encircles, a deli- 
cate lemon yellow, which, in a lighter tinge, lines the wings; belly 
and vent, pure silky white; lesser wing-coverts, lower part of the 
back, and rump, ash; wings, deep brown, almost black, crossed with 
two white bars; primaries, edged with light ash, secondaries, with 
white; tail, a little forked, of the same brownish black with the 
wings, the three exterior feathers edged on each vane with white; 
legs and claws, light blue; the two exterior toes united to the middle 
one, as far as the second joint; bill, broad at the base, with three or 
four slight bristles, the upper mandible overhanging the lower at the 
point, near which it is deeply notched; tongue, thin, broad, tapering 
near the end, and bifid; the eye is of a dark hazel; and the whole 
bill of a dusky light blue. The female differs very little in color 
from the male; the yellow on the breast, and round the eye, is duller, 
and the white on the wings less pure. 
brighter, the wings considerably shorter and more rounded, and the first quill al- 
ways shorter than the fifth, — that V. olivaceus is confined to North America, while 
V. Bartramii extends to Brazil. The species of the arctic expedition were pro- 
eured by Mr. David Douglas on the banks of the Columbia. Mr. Swainson also 
met with the species in the Brazils; and, from specimens sent to us by that gentle- 
man, I have no hesitation in considering them distinct, and of at once recognizing 
the differences he has pointed out. 
Mr. Audubon has figured another species which will rank as an addition to this 
renus, and, if proved new, will stand as Vireo Vigorsii; he has only met with a 
single individual in Pennsylvania, and enters into no description of its history, or 
distinctions from other allied birds. — Ep. 
* See Orange-throated Warbler, Larnam, Syn. ii. 481, 103. 
