i62 Birds Every Child Should Know 
family wear similar clothes, fortunately for 
“every child” who tries to identify them. 
You can tell a flycatcher at sight by the way 
he collects his dinner. Perhaps he will be 
sitting quietly on the limb of a tree or on a 
fence as if dreaming, when suddenly off he 
dashes into the air, clicks his broad bill sharply 
over a winged insect, flutters an instant, then 
wheels about and returns to his favourite perch 
to wait for the next course to fly by. He may 
describe fifty such loops in mid-air and make as 
many fatal snap-shots before his hunger is 
satisfied. A swallow or a swift would keep 
constantly on the wing; a vireo would hunt 
leisurely among the foliage; a warbler would 
restlessly flit about the tree hunting for its 
dinner among the leaves; but the dignified, 
dexterous flycatcher, like a hawk, waits 
patiently on his lookout for a dinner to fly 
toward him, “All things come to him who 
waits,” he firmly believes. 
None of the family is musically gifted, but all 
make a more or less pleasing noise. Flycatchers 
are solitary, sedentary birds, never being found 
in flocks; but when mated, they are devoted 
home lovers. 
We are apt to think of tropical birds as 
very gaily feathered, but certainly many that 
come from warmer climes to spend the summer 
with us are less conspicuous than Quakers. 
