SMALL BLUE-GRA Y FL YCA TCHER. 



305 



high tree in the woods. This nest is formed of very slight 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 de- 

 posit her egg ; and to the management of these pigmy nurses 

 leaves the fate of her helpless j r oung. The motions of this 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, tsee, tsee, no 

 louder than a mouse. Though so small in itself, it is ambitious 

 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, overhanging at the tip, notched, broad, and fur- 

 nished with bristles at the base ; the colour of the plumage 

 above is a light bluish gray, bluest on the head, below bluish 

 white ; tail, longer than the body, a little rounded, and black, 

 except the exterior feathers, which are almost all white, and 

 the next two also tipt with white ; tail-coverts, black ; wings, 

 brownish black, some of the secondaries next the body edged 

 with white; legs, extremely slender, about three-fourths of an 

 inch long, and of a bluish black colour. The female is distin- 

 guished by wanting the black line round the front. 



The food of this bird is small winged insects and their 

 larva?, but particularly the former, which it seems almost 

 always in pursuit of. 



VOL. T. 



