COOPER’S FLYCATCHER— OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER. 
213 
The discovery of this species is due to my amiable and learned friend 
Nuttall, part of whose account of its habits I have pleasure in laying be- 
fore you. When, a few years ago, I rambled, as I do now, in quest of 
knowledge, scarcely an individual could be found in the United States 
conversant with birds. At the present day there are many, with whom I 
am personally acquainted, besides others, who have fully proved their zeal 
and activity by their discoveries and descriptions. 
On the 8th of August, 1832, w r hile walking out from Boston towards the 
country seat of the Honourable Thomas H. Perkins, along with my friend 
Nuttall, we were suddenly saluted with the note of this bird. As I had 
never seen it, I leaped over the fence beside us ; and cautiously approached 
the tree on which a male was perched and singing. Desiring my friend to 
go in search of a gun, I watched the motions of the devoted bird. He re- 
turned with a large musket, a cow’s horn filled with powder, and a handful 
of shot nearly as large as peas ; but, just as I commenced charging this curi- 
ous piece, I discovered that it was flintless 1 We were nearly a mile distant 
from Mr. Perkins’ house, but as we were resolved to have the bird, we 
proceeded to it with all despatch, procured a gun, and returning to the tree, 
found the Flyca'tcher, examined its flight and manners for awhile, and at 
length shot it. As the representative of a species, I made a drawing of 
this individual, which you will find copied in the place indicated above. 
But now let us attend to Nuttall’s account. 
“ This undescribed species, which appertains to the group of Pewees, was 
obtained in the woods of Mount Auburn, in this vicinity, by Mr. John 
Bethune, of Cambridge, on the 7th of June, 1830. This and the second 
specimen acquired soon afterwards, were females on the point of incubation. 
A third individual of the same sex was killed on the 21st of June, 1831. 
They were all of them fat, and had their stomach filled with torn fragments 
of wild bees, wasps, and other similar insects. I have watched the motions 
of two other living individuals, who appeared tyrannical and quarrelsome, 
even with each other. The attack was always accompanied with a whining 
querulous twitter. Their dispute was apparently, like that of savages, about 
the rights of their respective hunting-grounds. One of the birds, the female, 
whom I usually saw alone, was uncommonly sedentary. The territory she 
seemed determined to claim was circumscribed by the tops of a cluster of 
Virginian junipers or red cedars, and an adjoining elm and decayed cherry- 
tree. From this sovereign station, in the solitude of a barren and sandy 
piece of forest, adjoining Mount Auburn, she kept a sharp look-out for pass- 
ing insects, and pursued them with great vigour and success as soon as they 
appeared, sometimes chasing them to the ground, and generally resuming 
her perch with an additional mouthful, which she swallowed at leisure. On 
