TIIE KENTUCKY FLYCATCHING- WARBLER. 
19 
feet in diameter at the base, with a greyish smooth bark. The leaves which 
remain during the winter are stiff and leathery, smooth, elliptical, tapering 
at the base. The flowers are white, and seven or eight inches in diameter. 
It is known by the name of large magnolia, big laurel , and bay-tree, and 
occurs abundantly in some parts of Carolina, Georgia, the Floridas, and 
Louisiana. 
THE KENTUCKY FLY C ATCH1N G-W ARBLER. 
Myiodioctes FORMOSUS, Wils. 
PLATE LXXIY. — Male and Female. 
This beautiful species is the most common and abundant that visits the 
State of Louisiana and those States situated on the borders of the Mississippi. 
In Kentucky it is much less common, and in the State of Ohio scarcer still. 
It is an extremely active and lively bird. It is found in all the low grounds 
and damp places near water-courses, and generally among the tall rank weeds 
and low bushes growing in rich alluvial soil. Continually in motion, it is 
seen hopping in every direction from stalk to stalk, or from one twig to 
another, preying upon insects and larvae, or picking small berries, seldom, 
however, pursuing insects on wing. During spring, its agreeable notes are 
heal'd in every quarter. They are emphatic, and resemble the words tweedle, 
tweedle, tweedle, distinctly repeated. This little bird is seen at intervals of 
a few minutes on the skirts of the tall plants, peeping cunningly to discover 
whether any intruders may be near ; after which it immediately re-enters 
the thicket, and repeats its little ditty. 
I never saw this bird fly farther than a few yards at a time. Its flight is 
low, and performed in a quick gliding manner, the bird throwing itself into 
the nearest bush or thicket of tall grass. It arrives in the Southern States, 
from Mexico, about the middle of March, and remains with us until the 
middle of September, during which time it rears two broods. Its nest is 
small, beautifully constructed, and usually attached to several stems of rank 
weeds. The outer parts are formed of the bark of stalks of the same weeds 
in a withered state, mixed with a finer kind and some cottony substances. 
It is beautifully lined with the cottony or silky substance that falls from the 
cotton-wood tree. The eggs are from four to six, of a pure white colour, 
finely sprinkled with bright red dots. 
