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LEAST PEWEE FLYCATCHER. 
Muscicapa pusilla, Swains. 
PLATE LXYI.— Male. 
This small and plainly-coloured species, first described by my friend 
William Swainson, Esq. in the Fauna Boreali- Americana, under the name 
of “ Tyrannula pusilla” is a common inhabitant of the northern and 
north-western parts of America, but has not, I believe, been known to pass 
along our Atlantic shores. Dr. Richardson, who observed it in the Fur 
Countries, says that “it was first seen by us at Carlton House, on the 19th of 
May, flitting about for a few days among low bushes on the banks of the 
river, after which it retired to the moist shady woods lying farther north.” 
My friend Thomas Nuttall, Esq. procured this bird on Wapatoo Island, 
which is formed by the junction of the Multnomah with the Columbia, 20 
miles long, and 10 broad. The land is high and extremely fertile, and in 
most parts supplied with a heavy growth of cotton-wood, ash, and sweet- 
willow. But the chief wealth of the island consists of the numerous ponds 
in the interior, abounding with the common arrow-head, Sagittaria sagitti- 
folia, to the root of which is attached a bulb growing beneath it in the mud. 
This bulb, to which the Indians give the name of Wapatoo, is the great 
article of food, and almost the staple article of commerce, on the Columbia. It 
is never out of season, so that at all times of the year the valley is frequented 
by the neighbouring Indians, who come to gather it. It is collected chiefly 
by the women, who take a light canoe in a pond, where the water is as high 
as the breast, and by means of their toes, separate the root from the bulb, 
which on being freed from the mud rises immediately to the surface of the 
water, and is thrown into the canoe. This plant is found through the whole 
extent of the Columbia Yalley, but does not grow farther eastward. 
“I observed,” he continues, “a male of this species very active and cheerful, 
making his chief residence in a spreading oak, on the open border of a 
piece of forest. As usual, he took his station at the extremity of a dead 
branch, from whence, at pretty quick intervals, he darted after passing 
insects. When at rest, he raised his erectile crest, and in great earnest called 
out sishui, sishui, and sometimes Isishea, tsishea, in a lisping tone, rather 
quickly, and sometimes in great haste, so as to run both calls together. This 
brief, rather loud, quaint and monotonous ditty, was continued for hours 
together, at which time, so great was our little actor’s abstraction, that he al- 
