OF ORNITHOLOGY 73 



Flycatcher are familiar to any one. The general scientific 

 characters are as follows : Bill length of head or shorter, 

 flattened or compressed more or less for its whole length, 

 broad at base, tip fine and sharp, abruptly hooked at end and 

 notched, and with its edges nearly or quite straight ; mouth, 

 when open, large and wide ; a few bristles at base of bill ; 

 nostrils round and situated at the end of the oblong fossse, 

 when present ; the tarsus is peculiar, it is scutellate (scutellse 

 small) all around and with a deep grove where the plates 

 join ; feet small and, for the most part, weak when compared 

 with the general activity of these birds ; tarsus about equal to 

 the middle toe and its claw ; wing of ten primaries, of which 

 the first is often the longest, and never spurious or under size, 

 — the outer quills subject to a greater or less degree of emar- 

 gination on their inner webs towards their tips ; tail of twelve 

 feathers, deeply forked or nearly even. 



Most of the Flycatchers are more or less crested, and this 

 crest they can raise or lower at will. Being strictly insect 

 feeders most if not all their food is captured while on the 

 wing. They are excessively nervous and agile creatures, sel- 

 dom remaining long in any one place but constantly darting 

 about, now here and now there, and performing most surpris- 

 ing evolutions while on the wing in search of food. When at 

 rest the peculiar and constant jerking of the tail, as if for the 

 purpose of balancing itself, is very noticeable. The frequent 

 and loud snapping noise produced by the quick closing of the 

 mandibles, is also a prominent peculiarity of these birds. 



The North American Flycatchers are, ordinarily, separated 

 from the world-wide group of Flycatchers by a sub-family 

 tyrannin^:. This may seem necessary to some ; but we fail 

 to see any reason why it should be thus forced upon us, with- 

 out any explanations, as is done by so many or our ornitho- 

 logical writers of to-day. We shall dispense with the usual 

 sub-family, and then the above family characteristics will an- 

 swer equally well for our present purpose. The explanation 

 that our classification is a universal one, while our fauna is 

 North American, seems a very one-sided one. 



