390 



HOODED FLYCATCHER. 



of Tennessee, and in the Mississippi territory ; and seems 

 perpetually in pursuit of winged insects ; now and then 

 uttering three loud, not unmusical, and very lively notes, 

 resembling hoee, twee, twitchie, while engaged in the chase. 

 Like almost all its tribe, it is full of spirit, and exceedingly 

 active. It builds a very neat and compact nest, generally in 

 the fork of a small bush, forms it outwardly of moss and flax, 

 or broken hemp, and lines it with hair, and sometimes feathers ; 

 the eggs are five, of a greyish white, with red spots towards 

 the great end. In all parts of the United States, where it 

 inhabits, it is a bird of passage. At Savannah I met with it 

 about the 20th of March ; so that it probably retires to the 

 West India islands, and perhaps Mexico, during winter. I 

 also heard this bird among the rank reeds and rushes within 

 a few miles of the mouth of the Mississippi. It has been 

 sometimes seen in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, but 

 rarely ; and, on such occasions, has all the mute timidity of 

 a stranger at a distance from home. 



This species is five inches and a half long, and eight in 

 extent ; forehead, cheeks, and chin, yellow, surrounded with 

 a hood of black, that covers the crown, hind head, and part 

 of the neck, and descends, rounding over the breast ; all the 

 rest of the lower parts are rich yellow ; upper parts of the 

 wings, the tail, and back, yellow olive ; interior vanes, and 

 tips of the wing and tail, dusky ; bill, black ; legs, flesh 

 coloured ; inner webs of the three exterior tail feathers, white 

 for half their length from the tips ; the next, slightly touched 

 with white ; the tail slightly forked, and exteriorly edged with 

 rich yellow olive. 



The female has the throat and breast yellow, slightly tinged 

 with blackish; the black does not reach so far down the upper 

 part of the neck, and is not of so deep a tint. In the other 

 parts of her plumage she exactly resembles the male. I 

 have found some females that had little or no black on the 

 head or neck above ; but these I took to be young birds, not 

 yet arrived at their full tints. 



