WHITE-EYED FLYCATCHER. 
145 
sidered it a very scarce species. He could give me no information of tire 
female. The one from which the figure in the plate was taken, was 
shot in Mr. Bartram's woods, near Philadelphia, among the branches of 
dogwood, in the month of October. It appears to belong to a particular 
family, or subdivision of the Muscicapa genus, among which are the 
White-eyed, the Yellow-throated, and several others already described 
in the present work. Why one species should be so rare, while another, 
much resembling it, is so numerous, at least a thousand for one, is a 
question I am unable to answer ; unless by supposing the few we meet 
with here to be accidental stragglers from the great body, which may 
have their residence in some other parts of our extensive continent. 
The Solitary Flycatcher is five inches long, and eight inches in 
breadth ; cheeks and upper part of the head and neck, a fine bluish 
gray ; breast pale cinereous ; flanks and sides of the breast yellow ; 
whole back and tail coverts green olive ; wings nearly black ; the first 
and second row of coverts tipped with white ; the three secondaries next 
the body edged with pale yellowish white ; the rest of the quills bor- 
dered with light green ; tail slightly forked, of the same tint as the 
wings, and edged with light green ; from the nostrils a line of white 
proceeds to and encircles the eye ; lores black ; belly and vent white ; 
upper mandible black ; lower light blue ; legs and feet light blue ; eyes 
hazel. 
Species X. MUSCICAPA CANTATRIX. 
WHITE-EYED FLYCATCHER. 
[Plate XVIII. Fig. 6.] 
Muscicapa noveboracensis, Gmel. Syst. r., p. 947. — Hanging Flycatcher, Lath. Syn. 
Supp. p. 174. — Arct. Zool. p. 389, No. 274.- — Muscicapa cantatrix, the little Do- 
mestic Flycatcher, or Green Wren, Bartram, p. 290.* 
This is another of the Cow-bird's adopted nurses ; a lively, active, 
and sociable little bird, possessing a strong voice for its size, and a great 
variety of notes ; and singing with little intermission, from its first 
arrival about the middle of April to a little before its departure in Sep- 
tember. On the twenty-seventh of February I heard this bird in the 
southern parts of the state of Georgia, in considerable numbers, sing- 
ing with great vivacity. They had only arrived a few days before. Its 
arrival in Pennsylvania, after an interval of seven weeks, is a proof 
that our birds of passage, particularly the smaller species, do not migrate 
* Yireo musicus, Vieillot, Ois. cle V Am. Sept. pi. 52. 
Vol. II.— 10 
