274 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 
FORK-TAILED FLYCATCHER. 
(Muscicapa savana, Bonap. Am. Orn. i. p. 1. pi. 1. fig. 1. M. tyran - 
nus , Lin. Philad. Museum, No. 6620.) 
Sp. Charact. — Cinereous; head black; a fulvous spot on the 
crown ; beneath white; tail 10 inches long, extremely forked and 
black. 
This splendid bird is a resident in the tropical wilds 
of Guiana, where it is said to be common, and was found 
also by Commerson near the banks of La Plata and in 
the woods of Monte Video. It is only a straggler in the 
United States, from one of which accidental visitors, 
near Bridgetown in New Jersey, in the first week in 
December, was made the splendid engraving which ac- 
companies the account of this bird in Prince Bonaparte’s 
Ornithology. 
In its habits it resembles the other native species of 
the genus, is a solitary bird, remaining for a long time 
perched on the limb of a tree, from whence it occasion- 
ally darts after passing insects, or flying downwards, it 
alights on the tufted herbage arising above the partially 
drowned savannas, beyond whose limits this sedentary 
species but seldom strays. While seated, his long train is 
in motion like that of the Wagtail. Besides insects, like 
our King-bird, he feeds on berries, and this individual 
had his stomach distended with those of the Poke plant. # 
South America affords two other species resembling the 
present, and equally remarkable for the singular length 
and forking of the tail-feathers. 
The length of the Fork-tailed Flycatcher is 14 inches, its tail 
alone measuring nearly 10. The alar extent is also 14 inches. The 
upper part of the head and cheeks is deep black. The feathers of 
Paptolacca decandra. L. 
