GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHER. 
225 
more than a month old. This appeared also to have been its 
original colour, as it issued from the egg. The skin was 
yellowish white ; the eye, much lighter than usual ; the legs 
and bill, blue. It was plump, and seemingly in good order. 
I presented it to Mr Peale. Whatever may be the cause of 
this loss of colour, if I may so call it, in birds, it is by no 
means uncommon among the various tribes that inhabit the 
United States. The Sparrow Hawk, Sparrow, Robin, Red- 
winged Blackbird, and many others, are occasionally found in 
white plumage ; and I believe that such birds do not become 
so by climate, age, or disease, but that they are universally 
hatched so. The same phenomena are observable not only 
among various sorts of animals, but even among the human 
race ; and a white negro is no less common, in proportion to 
their numbers, than a White Blackbird ; though the precise 
cause of this in either is but little understood. 
GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHER MUSCICAPA 
CRINITA — Plate XIII. Fig. 2. 
Linn* Syst. 325. — Lath. ii. 357. — Arct. Zool. p. 386. No. 267 Le Mouche- 
rolle de Virginie a huppe verte, Buff. iv. 565. PL enl. 569. — Peale' s Museum , No. 
6645. 
TYRANNUS CRINITUS. — Swainson. 
Tyrannus crinitus, Swain. Monog. Jowrn. of Science, vol. xx. p. 271. — Muscicapa 
crinita, Bonap. Synop. p. 67. 
By glancing at the physiognomy of this bird, and the rest 
of the figures on the same plate, it will readily be observed, 
that they all belong to one particular family of the same 
genus. They possess strong traits of their particular cost , and 
are all remarkably dexterous at their profession of fly-catching. 
The one now before us is less generally known than the 
preceding, being chiefly confined to the woods. There his 
harsh squeak — for he has no song — is occasionally heard above 
most others. He also visits the orchard ; is equally fond of 
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