244 
TEE BLEE-GREt FLYCATCHER. 
yellow ; edges of all the quills dull greyish-white ; secondaries with a faint 
patch of light brownish-grey on the outer web toward the end ; middle tail- 
feathers greyish-brown, the rest blackish-brown, the outer with an oblique 
white space, including, from the tip, a considerable portion of the inner web, 
and more than two-thirds of the outer; the next with a white patch at the 
end ; lower parts paler than the upper ; lower tail and wing-coverts broadly 
tipped with dull white, some of the inner wing-coverts white. 
Female, 8i, wing, 4£. 
Columbia river. 
Genus IV.— CULICIVORA, Swains. GNAT-CATCHER. 
Bill of moderate length, depressed at the base, rapidly attenuated, becoming- 
very slender toward the end ; upper mandible with the ridge distinct, the tip 
extremely narrow and deflected, the edges overlapping, the notch distinct, 
but very small ; lower mandible with the angle of moderate length, the ridge 
narrowed toward the end, the edges inclinate, the tip acute. Nostrils oblong, 
exposed. Head ovate ; neck short ; body slender. Feet of moderate length, 
tarsus longer than the middle toe, extremely slender, with the upper scutella 
indistinct ; toes very small, extremely compressed ; hind toe proportionally 
very large ; outer adherent at the base. Claws well arched, extremely 
compressed, laterally grooved, acute. Plumage very soft and blended. 
Wings of moderate length, concave; the first quill about a third of the 
length of the second, fourth longest, third and fifth little shorter. Tail long, 
slender much rounded. 
THE BLUE-GREY FLYCATCHER. 
CULICIVORA CCERULEA, Lath. 
PLATE LXX. — Male and Female. 
This diminutive lively bird is rendered peculiarly conspicuous by its being 
frequently the nurse or foster-parent of the young Cow Bunting, the real 
mother of which drops her egg in its nest. A few individuals of this spe- 
cies remain in Louisiana during spring and summer, and breed there ; but the 
