SMALL BLUE-GRAY FLYCATCHER. 
305 
tops of a high tree in the woods. This nest is formed of very- 
slight and perishable materials, — the husks of buds, stems of 
old leaves, withered blossoms of weeds, down from the stalks 
of fern, coated on the outside with gray lichen, and lined with 
a few horse hairs. Yet in this frail receptacle, which one 
would think scarcely sufficient to admit the body of the owner, 
and sustain even its weight, does the female Cow Bird venture 
to deposit her egg ; and to the management of these pigmy 
nurses leaves the fate of her helpless young. The motions 
of this little bird are quick ; he seems always on the look-out 
for insects ; darts about from one part of the tree to another, 
with hanging wings and erected tail, making a feeble chirping, 
tsee, tsee , no louder than a mouse. Though so small in itself, 
it is ambitious of hunting on the highest branches, and is 
seldom seen among the humbler thickets. It remains with 
us until the 20th or 28th of September ; after which we see 
no more of it until the succeeding spring. I observed this bird 
near Savannah, in Georgia, early in March ; but it does not 
winter even in the southern parts of that state. 
The length of this species is four inches and a half ; extent, 
six and a half ; front, and line over the eye, black ; bill, black, 
very slender, overhanging at the tip, notched, broad, and 
furnished with bristles at the base ; the colour of the plumage 
above is a light bluish gray, bluest on the head, below bluish 
white ; tail, longer than the body, a little rounded, and black, 
except the exterior feathers, which are almost all white, and 
the next two also tipt with white ; tail-coverts, black ; wings, 
brownish black, some of the secondaries next the body edged 
with white ; legs, extremely slender, about three-fourths of 
an inch long, and of a bluish black colour. The female is 
distinguished by wanting the black line round the front. 
The food of this bird is small winged insects, and their 
larvae, but particularly the former, which it seems almost 
always in pursuit of. 
VOL. i. 
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