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HOODED FLYCATCHER 



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 ex- 

 tent; 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 colored; inner webs of the three exterior tail fea- 

 thers 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 fe- 

 males that had little or no black on the head or neck above ; but 

 these I took to be young birds, not yet arrived ^t their full tints. 



