20 
SAY’S FLYCATCHER. 
MUS Cl CAP A SATA. 
Plate II. Fig. 3. 
Philadelphia Museum , No. 6831. 
We now introduce into the Fauna of the United States a species 
which is either a non-descript, or one that has been improperly 
named; and I dedicate it to my friend Thomas Say, a naturalist, of 
whom America may justly be proud, and whose talents and know¬ 
ledge are only equalled by his modesty. The specimen now before 
us is a male, shot by Mr. T. Peale, on the seventeenth of July, near 
the Arkansaw river, about twenty miles from the Rocky Mountains. 
We cannot be perfectly sure that this Flycatcher has not hereto¬ 
fore been noticed, since we find in the books, two short and unes¬ 
sential descriptions which might be supposed to indicate it. One 
of these is the Muscicapa ohscura of Latham, (Dusky Flycatcher 
of his Synopsis,) from the Sandwich Islands; but, besides the dif¬ 
ference of the tail feathers, described as acute in that bird, the 
locality decides against its identity with ours. The other descrip¬ 
tion is that of a bird from Cayenne, the Muscicapa ohscura of 
Vieillot,* given by that author as very distinct from Latham’s, 
although he has applied the same name to it, no doubt inadver¬ 
tently. This may possibly be our bird; but, even in this case, the 
name we have chosen will necessarily be retained, as that of 
ohscura attaches to Latham’s species by the right of priority. 
This Flycatcher strongly resembles the common Pewee ( Mus¬ 
cicapa fusca), but differs from that familiar bird by the very re¬ 
markable form of the bill; by the colour of the plumage, which 
* Nouv. Diet. d’Hist. Nat. XXI, p. 451. 
