164 



SMALL BLUE GREY FLYCATCHER. 

 MUSCICAPA CJERULEA. 

 [Plate XVIII.— Fig. 5.] 



3/[otacilla C(srulea^ Turton, Syst. I,/?. 612. — Blue Flycatcher^ Edw./>/. 302. — Regulus gri- 

 seus, the little Bluish Grey Wren, Bartram, p. 291. — Le figuier gris de fer, Buff. V, 

 p. 309.-— Carulean Warbler, Arct. Zool. II, Ab. 299.— Lath. Syn. lY,p. 490, No. 127.— 

 5 Museum, No. 6829. 



THIS diminutive species, but for the length of the tail, would 

 rank next to our Humming-bird in magnitude. It is a very dex- 

 terous Flycatcher, and has also something of the manners of the 

 Titmouse, with whom, in early spring and Fall, it frequently asso- 

 ciates. It arrives in Pennsylvania from the south about the middle 

 of April ; and about the beginning of May builds its nest, which it 

 generally fixes among the twigs of a tree, sometimes at the height 

 of ten feet from the ground, sometimes fifty feet high, on the ex- 

 tremities of the tops of a 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 grey 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 

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

 leaves the fate of her helpless young. 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. Tho so small in itself, it is ambitious of hunting on the 



