ICTERIA. 
299 
Length of the Blue-grey Flycatcher 4J inches ; alar extent 6J. 
Front and line over the eye black. Above, light bluish-grey, bright- 
est on the head. Below bluish- white and pale (white, in the fe- 
males.) Tail edged with blue, its coverts black. Wings brownish 
black, some of the secondaries next the body edged with white. 
Legs pale blue. Iris hazel. Bill black, broad, notched somewhat 
more at the tip, than the rest of this subgenus. 
ICTERIA. (Yieillot, Bonap.) 
The bill robust, rather long, convex, curved, compressed, entire, 
and pointed, with divergent bristles at its base ; the mandibles nearly 
equal, with the edges somewhat bent inwards. Nostrils rounded, 
half covered by an arched membrane. Tongue cartilaginous, slightly 
cleft at the point. — The inner toe unconnected with the adjoining 
one. First primary a little shorter than the 2d, 3d, and 4th, which 
are longest. — Female similar to the male in color. 
They feed on insects and berries ; are fond of concealment ; alight 
occasionally on the ground near the thickets where they hide. 
Their flight is irregular, and their song quaint and varied. — The 
genus contains but a single species, and is peculiar to America. It 
is allied to Muscicapa as well as to the Vireo and Thrush. 
YELLOW-BREASTED ICTERIA. 
(Icteria Viridis , Bonap. Pipra polyglotta , Wilson i. p. 90. pi. 6, 
fig. 2. Muscicapa viridis. Gmel. Philad. Museum, No. 6661J 
Observ. The general color of this bird above is deep olive-green; 
the throat and breast is yellow ; with the abdomen and a line 
encircling the eyes white. 
This remarkable bird is another summer resident of 
the United States, which passes the winter in tropical 
America, being found in Guiana and Brazil, so that its 
migrations probably extend indifferently into the milder 
regions of both hemispheres. Even the birds essentially 
