SPECIES 16. MUSCICAPA MINUTA. 
SMALL-HEADED FLYCATCHER. 
[Plate L. — Fig. 5. Male.] 
This very rare species is the only one I have met with, and 
is drawn reduced to half its size, to correspond with the rest of 
the figures on the same plate. It was shot on the twenty-fourth 
of April, in an orchard, and was remarkably active, running, 
climbing and darting about among the opening buds and blos- 
soms with extraordinary agility. From what quarter of the Uni- 
ted States or of North America it is a wanderer, I am unable 
to determine, having never before met with an individual of 
the species. Its notes and manner of breeding are also alike un- 
known to me. This was a male: it measured five inches long, 
and eight and a quarter in extent; the upper parts were dull yel- 
low olive; the wings dusky brown edged with lighter; the great- 
er and lesser coverts tipt with white; the lower parts dirty white, 
stained with dull yellow, particularly on the upper parts of the 
breast; the tail dusky brown, the two exterior feathers marked 
like those of many others with a spot of white on the inner vanes; 
head remarkably small; bill broad at the base, furnished with 
bristles, and notched near the tip; legs dark brown; feet yel- 
lowish; eye dark hazel. 
Since writing the above I have shot several individuals of 
this species in various quarters of New Jersey, particularly in 
swamps. They all appear to be nearly alike in plumage. Hav- 
ing found them there in June, there is no doubt of their breed- 
ing in that state, and probably in such situations far to the 
southward; for many of the southern summer birds that rarely 
visit Pennsylvania, are yet common to the swamps and pine 
woods of New Jersey. Similarity of soil and situation, of plants 
