202 THE PIPIRY FLYCATCHER. 



catcher, that were it not for its greater size, and the difference of its notes, 

 it might be mistaken for that bird, as I think it has been on former occasions 

 by travellers less intent than I on distinguishing species. At the season 

 when I visited the Floridas, there was not a Key ever so small without at 

 least a pair of them. 



Their flight is performed by a constant flutter of the wings, unless when 

 the bird is in chase, or has been rendered shy, when it exhibits a power and 

 speed equal to those of any other species of the genus. During the love 

 season, the male and female are seen rising from a dry twig together, either 

 perpendicularly, or in a spiral manner, crossing each other as they ascend, 

 twittering loudly, and conducting themselves in a manner much resembling 

 that of the Tyrant Flycatcher. When in pursuit of insects, they dart at 

 them with great velocity. Should any large bird pass near their stand, they 

 immediately pursue it, sometimes to a considerable distance. I have seen 

 them, after teasing a Heron or Fish Crow, follow them nearly half a mile, 

 and return exulting to the tree on which they had previously been perched. 

 Yet I frequently observed that the approach of a White-headed Pigeon or 

 Zenaida Dove, never ruffled their temper. To the Grakles they were par- 

 ticularly hostile, and on all occasions drove them away from their stand, or 

 the vicinity of their nest, with unremitting perseverance. The reason in 

 this case, and in that of the Fish Crow, was obvious, for these birds sucked 

 their eggs or destroyed their young whenever an opportunity occurred. 

 This was also the case with the Mangrove Cuckoo. 



This species is careless of the approach of man, probably because it is 

 seldom disturbed by him. I have been so near some of them as to see dis- 

 tinctly the colour of their eyes. No sooner, however, had it begun to build 

 its nest, than it flew about me or my companions, as if much exasperated at 

 our being near, frequently snapping its beak with force, and in various ways 

 loudly intimating its disapprobation of our conduct. Then, as if we retired 

 from the neighbourhood of its nest, it flew upwards, chattering notes of joy. 



They fix their nest somewhat in the manner of the King Bird, that is, on 

 horizontal branches, or in the large fork of a mangrove, or bush of any other 

 species, without paying much attention to its position, with respect to the 

 water, but with very singular care to place it on the western side of the 

 tree, or of the islet. I found it sometimes not more than two feet above 

 high water, and at other times twenty. It is composed externally of light 

 dry sticks, internally of a thin layer of slender grasses or fibrous roots, and 

 has some resemblance to that of the Carolina Pigeon in this respect that, 

 from beneath, I could easil) T see the eggs through it. These were regularly 

 four in all the nests that I saw, of a white colour, with man)' dots towards 



