LEAST PEWEE FLYCATCHER. 
237 
lowed a near approach without any material apprehension. As I could not 
discover any nest, I have little doubt it was concealed either in some knot 
or laid on some horizontal branch.” 
I found this species both in Newfoundland and on the coast of Labrador in 
considerable numbers. In the latter country, where the bushes are low and 
the fir-trees seldom attain a height of thirty feet, I observed that it preferred 
for its residence the narrow and confined valleys which at that season (July) 
are clothed with luxuriant herbage, and abound in insects, to which this little 
Flycatcher gives chase with great activity, returning, as is the well-known 
'habit of all our small species, to the twig or top of the plant which it has 
selected for its look-out station. Two males I observed one morning, were 
constantly engaged in pursuing each other, when at times they would mount 
to some height in the air, there meet, snap their bills violently, separate, and 
return to their posts. Their continued cries induced me to believe that they 
had females and nests in the valley ; and after searching a good while, I had 
the gratification of finding one of them placed between two small twigs of a 
bush not above four feet in height. The nest was composed of delicate dry 
grasses and fibrous roots, so thinly arranged as to enable me to see through 
it. It contained five eggs, so nearly resembling those of our Little Red-start 
Flycatcher, that, had I not started the female from the nest, I should have 
been induced to pronounce them the property of that bird. They measured 
five and a half eighths by four-eighths, and were rather sharp at the smaller 
end, pure white, thinly spotted, and marked with different tints of light red, 
with a few dots of umber, principally toward the apex. Many of the young 
were able to fly before our departure, which took place on the 12th of 
August ; and I think that the pair which I found breeding must have been 
later than usual in arriving in that country, as a very few days afterwards 
I found a good number fully fledged, and travelling along the shore of St. 
George’s Bay in Newfoundland. This species may perhaps breed in Nova 
Scotia, as I have seen a specimen obtained there in the collection of my 
young friend Thomas M'Culloch, Esq. of Halifax. 
Tyrannula pusilla, Little Tyrant Flycatcher, Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., 
vol. ii. p. 144. 
Little Tyrant Flycatcher, Muscicapa pusilla , Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. v. p. 288 
Third quill longest, fourth scarcely shorter, second nearly one-twelfth 
shorter, and exceeding the first by three and a quarter twelfths ; tail slightly 
emarginate ; upper parts light greenish-brown ; loral band whitish, a narrow 
pale ring surrounding the eye ; wings olive-brown, with two bands of dull 
white, secondaries margined with the same ; tail olive-brown, the lateral 
Vol. I. §6 
