198 
SWALLOW-TAILED FLYCATCHER. 
the grasshoppers.- which were now abundant. At this time also, they were 
wholly silent, and flitted before our path with suspicion and timidity. A 
week or two after, we saw them no more, they having retired probably to 
tropical winter-quarters. 
“ In the month of May, a pair, which I daily saw for three or four weeks, 
had made a nest on the horizontal branch of an elm, probably twelve or more 
feet from the ground. I did not examine it very near, but it appeared 
externally composed of coarse dry grass. The female, when first seen, was 
engaged in sitting, and her mate wildly attacked every bird which ap- 
proached their residence. The harsh chirping note of the male, kept up 
at intervals, as remarked by Mr. Say, almost resembled the barking of 
the prairie marmot, ’tsh, ’tsh, 'tsh. His flowing kite like tail, spread or 
contracted at will while flying, is a singular trait in his plumage, and ren- 
dered him conspicuously beautiful to the most careless observer.” 
Swallow-tailed Flycatcher, Muscicapa forficata , Bonap. Amer. Orn., vol.i. p. 15. 
Muscicapa forficata, Syn., p. 275. 
Swallow-tailed Flycatcher, Muscicapa forficata , Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 275. 
Swallow-tailed Flycatcher, Muscicapa forficata, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol.iv. p.426. 
Tail longer than the body ; upper part of the head, cheeks, and hind 
neck ash-grey ; back brownish grey, rump dusky ; anterior wing-coverts 
scarlet, quills brownish-black, tail-feathers deep black, the three outer on 
each' side rose-coloured to near the end ; lower parts white before, rose- 
coloured behind. 
Male, 11, wing 5s-. 
Genus II.— MUSCICAPA, Linn. FLYCATCHER. 
Bill moderate, or rather long, stout, straight, broad at the base, gradually 
compressed toward the end ; upper mandible with the dorsal outline sloping, 
the edges sharp and overlapping, with a very small notch close to the small 
deflected tip ; lower mandible with the ridge very broad at the base, the sides 
rounded, the tip minute and ascending. Nostrils basal, roundish. Head 
rather large, depressed ; neck short ; body rather slender. Feet short ; 
tarsus very short, slender, 'with six very broad scutella, three of which 
almost meet behind ; toes free, the hind toe large, all scutellate above ; 
claws rather long, very slender, arched, finely pointed. Plumage soft and 
blended. Wings long, second and third quills longest ; outer primaries 
generally attenuated at the end. Tail long, even, or emarginate. 
