196 



THE FORKED-TAILED FLYCATCHER. 



■+ MlLVULUS TYR ANNUS, Lintl. 



PLATE LIT.— Male. 



In the end of June, 1S32, I observed one of these birds a few miles below 

 the city of Camden, New Jersey, flying over a meadow in pursuit of insects, 

 after which it alighted on the top of a small detached tree, where I followed 

 it and succeeded in obtaining it. The bird appeared to have lost itself: it 

 was unsuspicious, and paid no attention to me as I approached it. While on 

 the wing, it frequently employed its long tail, when performing sudden turns 

 in following its prey, and when alighted, it vibrated it in the manner of the 

 Sparrow-Hawk. The bird fell to the ground wounded, and uttering a sharp 

 squeak, which it repeated, accompanied with smart clicks of its bill, when I 

 went up to it. It lived only a few minutes, and from it the drawing- trans- 

 ferred to the plate was made. This figure corresponds precisely with a skin 

 shewn to me by my friend Charles Pickering, at the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences in Philadelphia, except in the general tint of the plumage, his 

 specimen, which he had received from South America, having been much 

 faded. 



Many years ago, while residing at Henderson in Kentucky, I had one of 

 these birds brought to me which had been caught by the hand, and was 

 nearly putrid when I got it. The person who presented it to me had caught 

 it in the Barrens, ten or twelve miles from Henderson, late in October, after 

 a succession of white frosts, and had kept it more than a week. While near 

 the city of Natchez, in the state of Mississippi, in August 1S22, I saw two 

 others high in the air, twittering in the manner of the King Bird; but they 

 disappeared to the westward, and I was unable to see them again. These 

 four specimens are the only ones I have seen in the United States, where 

 individuals appear only at long intervals, and in far distant districts, as if 

 they had lost themselves. I regret that I am unable to afford any informa- 

 tion respecting their habits. 



Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Muscicapa Savana, Bonap. Amer. Orn., vol. i. p. 1. 

 Muscicapa Savana, Bonap. Syn., p. 67. 



Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Muscicapa Savana, Nult. Man., vol. i. p. 274. 

 Forked-tailed Flycatcher, Muscicapa Savana, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. ii. p. 337. 



Tail more than twice the length of the body; upper part of head and 



