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AEKANSAW FLYCATCHER. 
Muscicapa yerticalis, Bonap. 
PLATE LIY. — Male and Female. 
This species extends its range from the mouth of the Columbia river, 
across our continent, to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico ; but how far north 
it may proceed is as yet unknown. On the 10th of April, 1837, whilst on 
Cayo Island, in the Gulf of Mexico, I found a specimen of this bird dead at 
the door of a deserted house, which had recently been occupied by some 
salt-makers. From its freshness I supposed that it had sought refuge in the 
house on the preceding evening, which had been very cold for the season. 
Birds of several other species we also found dead on the bea'ches. The indi- 
vidual thus met with was emaciated, probably in consequence of a long jour- 
ney and scanty fare; but I was not the less pleased with it, as it afforded me 
the means of taking measurements of a species not previously described in 
full. In my possession are some remarkably fine skins, from Mr. Town- 
send’s collection, which differ considerably from the figure given by Bona- 
parte, who first described the species. So nearly allied is it -to the Green- 
crested Flycatcher, M. crinita, that after finding the dead bird, my son and 
I, seeing many individuals of that species on the trees about the house 
mentioned, shot several of them, supposing them to be the same.* "We are 
indebted to the lamented Thomas Say for the introduction of the Arkansaw 
Flycatcher into our Fauna. Mr. Nuttall has supplied me with an account 
of its manners. 
We first met with this bold and querulous species, early in July, in the 
scanty woods which border the north-west branch of the Platte, within the 
range of the Rocky Mountains; and from thence we saw them to the forests 
of the Columbia and the Wahlamet, as well as in all parts of Upper Califor- 
nia, to latitude 32°. They are remarkably noisy and quarrelsome with each 
other, and in the time of incubation, like the King-bird, suffer nothing of 
the bird kind to approach them without exhibiting their predilection for 
battle and dispute. About the middle of June, in the dark swamped forests 
of the Wahlamet, we every day heard the discordant clicking warble of this 
bird, somewhat like tsh’/c, tsh’/c, tshiva.it , sounding almost like the creaking 
of a rusty door-hinge, somewhat in the manner of the King-bird, with a 
blending of the notes of the Blackbird or Common Grakle. Although I saw 
these birds residing in the woods of the Columbia, and near the St. Diego it 
