88 
MUSCICAPA FORFICATA. 
white at their bases. The three exterior feathers 
each side are of a delicate pale rosaceous colour o' 1 
considerable part of their length from the base. *■ '; 
external one is live inches and a half long ; the sect 1 , 
and third gradually decrease in length, but the fo» r , 
is disproportionately shorter, and from this feat' 11 
there is again a gradual decrease to the sixth, whirl* 
little more than two inches long. .. 
The female of the swallow- tailed flycatcher is proba*” 
very similar to the male, but the colours of the yO* li; 
bird are much less vivid, and the exterior tail-featb 1 ' 1 
are much shorter than those of the adult. 
The swallow-tailed flycatcher is as audacious as dj 
kingbird, attacking with unhesitating intrepidity, <*v 
turning the flight of the most powerful of the feathef* 
tribe. Its note consists of a chirping, sounding 
tsch, tsch, much resembling that of the prairie 
0 
,_J i.4 
( Arctomys ludoviciana, Ord,) by which it deceived $ 
members of Long’s party into a belief that they "’ ,,r 
approaching one of the villages of this animal. 
“ A note, like that of the prairie dog, (writes Saw 
for a moment induced the belief that a village of r j*. 
marmot was near, but we were soon undeceived by' jj 
appearance of the beautiful Ty r annua for ficatus iu l", 
pursuit of a crow. Not at first view recognizing y, 
bird, the fine elongated tail plumes occasionally diverg‘d 
in a furcate manner, and again closing together, to g*'j 
direction to the aerial evolutions of the bird, seeP', l f 
like extraneous processes of dried grass, or twigs o' j 
tree, adventitiously attached to the tail, and indue" 1 ’ j 
bycurrentsof wind. The feathered warrior flew for"*' 1 , 
to a tree, whence, at our too near approach, , , 
descended to the earth, at a little distance, contuw* 1 ?® 
at intervals his chirping note. This bird seems to 
rather rare in this region ; but, as the very po""*^, 
within the barrels of our 
guns was wet, we 
■i«' f 
obliged to content ourselves with only a distant v,t ' 
of nft 
The range of the swallow-tailed flycatcher nfP.j 
to be limited to the trans-Mississippian territories, If 11 ' 
