SPECIES 7. MUSCICAPA CJERULEA. 
BLUE-GRAY FLYCATCHER. 
[Plate XVIII.— Fig. 5.] 
Motacilla ccerulea, Turton, Syst. i, p. 612. — Blue Flycatcher, 
Ewd. FL 302. — Regulus griseiis, the little Bluish Gray Wren, 
Bautram, p. 291. — Lejiguier gris de fer. Buff. v,p. 309. — 
Ccerulean Warbler, Jirct. Zool. ii, JV'b. 299. — Lath. Syn. iv, p. 
490, JVb. 127. — Peale’s Museum, JV*o. 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 frequent- 
ly associates. 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, some- 
times at the height of ten feet from the ground, sometimes fifty 
feet high, on the extremities of the tops of a high tree in the 
woods. This nest is formed of very slight and perishable ma- 
terials, the husks of buds, stems of old leaves, withered blos- 
soms of weeds, down from the stalks of fern, coated on the 
outside with gray lichen, and lined with a few horse hairs. Yet 
in this frail, receptacle, which one would think scarcely suffi- 
cient 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. 
Though so small in itself, it is ambitious of hunting on the high- 
