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WILSON’S FLYCATCHING- WARBLER. 
Myiodioctes Wilsonii. — Bonap . 
PLATE LXXY. — Male and Female. 
This species passes rapidly through the United States on its way to the 
Northern Districts, where it breeds and spends the summer. Wilson saw 
only a few specimens, which he met with in the lower parts of Delaware and 
New Jersey, and supposed it to be an inhabitant of the Southern States, 
where, however, it is never found in the summer months. It is not rare in 
the State of Maine, and becomes more abundant the farther north we pro- 
ceed. I found it in Labrador and all the intermediate districts. It reaches 
that country early in June, and returns southward by the middle of August. 
It has all the habits of a true Flycatcher, feeding on small insects, which 
it catches entirely on the wing, snapping its bill with a smart clicking sound. 
It frequents the borders of the lakes, and such streams as are fringed with 
* low bushes, from which it is seen every moment sallying forth, pursuing its 
insect prey for many yards at a time, and again throwing itself into its 
favourite thickets. 
The nest is placed on the extremity of a small horizontal branch, amongst 
the thick foliage of dwarf firs, not more than from three to five feet from the 
ground, and in the centre of the thickets of these trees so common in 
Labrador. The materials of which it is composed are bits of dry moss and 
delicate pine twigs, agglutinated together and to the branches or leaves 
around it, and beneath which it is suspended, with a lining of extremely fine 
and transparent fibres. The greatest diameter does not exceed 3. Jr inches, 
and the depth is not more than 14. The eggs are four, dull white, sprinkled 
with reddish and brown dots towards the larger end, where the markings 
form a circle, leaving the extremity plain. 
The parents show much uneasiness at the approach of any intruder, 
skipping about and around among the twigs and in the air, snapping their 
bill, and uttering a plaintive note. They raise only one brood in the season. 
The young males show their black cap as soon as they are fully fledged, and 
before their departure to the south. The head of the young female is at 
first of the same tint as the back, but I could not ascertain if they acquire 
their full colour the first autumn. 
I found these birds abundant in Newfoundland, but perceived that they 
had already begun to migrate on the 20th of August ; they were moving 
Vol. II. 4 
