ARKANSAW FLYCATCHER. 175 
which it deceived the members of Long’s party into a belief 
that they were approaching one of the villages of this animal. 
‘A note like that of the prairie dog,” writes Say, “for a 
moment induced the belief that a village of the marmot was 
near, but we were soon undeceived by the appearance of the 
beautiful Tyrannus forficatus in full pursuit of a crow. Not 
at first view recognising the bird, the fine elongated tail-plumes, 
occasionally diverging in a furcate manner, and again closing 
together to give direction to the aerial evolutions of the bird, 
seemed like extraneous processes of dried grass or twigs of 
a tree adventitiously attached to the tail, and influenced by 
currents of wind. The feathered warrior flew forward to a 
tree, whence, at our too near approach, he descended to the 
earth at a little distance, continuing at intervals his chirping 
note. This bird seems to be rather rare in this region; and 
as the very powder within the barrels of our guns was wet, we 
were obliged to content ourselves with only a distant view of it.” 
The range of the swallow-tailed flycatcher appears to be 
limited to the trans-Mississippian territories, lying on the 
south-western frontier of the United States, more especially 
frequenting the scanty forests, which, with many partial and 
often total interruptions, extend along the Arkansaw, Cana- 
dian, and Platte rivers, where in some districts they do not 
seem to be very uncommon. 
ARKANSAW FLYCATCHER. (Muscicapa verticalis.) 
PLATE II.—-Fic. 2. 
Tyrannus verticalis, Say, in Long’s Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, ii. p. 60.— 
Philadelphia Museum, No. 6624. 
TYRANNUS VERTICALIS.—Say. 
Muscicapa verticalis, Bonap. Synop. p. 67. 
Tus bird, brought from the Rocky Mountains by Major 
Long’s exploring party, is so closely allied to many imperfectly 
described species of the extensive genus to which it belongs, 
that ornithologists, at first sight, may very reasonably doubt 
