196 
THE FORKED-TAILED FLYCATCHER, 
Milvulus tyrannus, Linn . 
PLATE LIL— Male. 
In the end of June, 1832, 1 observed one of these birds a few miles below 
the city of Camden, New Jersey, flying over a meadow in pursuit of insects, 
after which it alighted on the top of a small detached tree, where I followed 
it and succeeded in obtaining it. The bird appeared to have lost itself: it 
was unsuspicious, and paid no attention to me as I approached it. While on 
the wing, it frequently employed its long tail, when performing sudden turns 
in following its prey, and when alighted, it vibrated it in the manner of the 
Sparrow-Hawk. The bird fell to the ground wounded, and uttering a sharp 
squeak, which it repeated, accompanied with smart clicks of its bill, when I 
went up to it. It lived only a few minutes, and from it the drawing 
transferred to the plate was made. This figure corresponds precisely with a 
skin shewn to me by my friend Charles Pickering, at the Academy of 
Natural Sciencesdn Philadelphia, except in the general tint of the plumage, 
his specimen, which he had received from South America, having been much 
faded. 
Many years ago, while residing at Henderson in Kentucky, I had one of 
these birds brought to me which had been caught by the hand, and was 
nearly putrid when I got it. The person who presented it to me had caught 
it in the barrens, ten or twelve miles from Henderson, late in October, after 
a succession of white frosts, and had kept it more than a week. While near 
the city of Natchez, in the state of Mississippi, in August 1822, I saw two 
others high in the air, twittering in the manner of the King-bird ; but they 
disappeared to the westward, and I was unable to see them again. These 
four specimens are the only ones I have seen in the United States, where 
individuals appear only at long intervals, and in far distant districts, as if 
they had lost themselves. I regret that I am unable to afford any infor- 
mation respecting their habits. 
Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Muscicapa Savana, Bonap. Amer. Orn., vol. i. p. 1. 
Muscicapa Savana, Bonap. Syn., p. 67. 
Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Muscicapa Savana, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 274. 
Forked-tailed Flycatcher, Muscicapa Savana, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. ii. p. 387. 
Tail more than twice the length of the body ; upper part of head and 
