On such occasions I have approached them near enough to touch them with my gun. By the middle of September they all retire farther south.
The plant on which I have represented a pair of these birds, is common in the localities which they usually prefer. Although richly coloured, it has no scent.
Hooded Flycatcher, Muscicapa cucullata, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. iii. p. 101, PL 26. Fig. 3. Male—Nuttall, Manual, vol. i. p. 373.
Sylvia mitrata, Lath. Index Ornith. vol. ii. p. 528—Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 79.
Adult Male. Plate CX. Fig. 1.
Bill of moderate length, straight, subulato-conical, acute, nearly as deep as broad at the base, the edges acute, the gap line a little deflected at the base. Nostrils basal, elliptical, lateral, half- closed by a membrane. Head rather small. Neck short. Body rather slender. Feet of ordinary length, slender; tarsus longer than the middle toe, covered anteriorly by a few scutella, the uppermost long; toes scu tell ate above, the inner free, the hind toe of moderate size; claws slender, compressed, acute, arched. Plumage soft and blended. Wings short, a little rounded, the second and third quills longest. Tail longish, slightly emarginate. Rather strong bristles at the base of the bill.
Bill blackish above, paler below. Iris brown. Feet flesh-coloured. Forehead, sides of the head, and the chin deep yellow, as are the breast and belly. Hind-head, throat, and lower part of the neck black. The general colour of the upper parts is yellowish-olive; wings dusky; three lateral tail-feathers white on the terminal half of their inner webs. Length 51⁄2, extent of wings 8; bill along the ridge nearly 5⁄12.
Adult Female. Plate CX. Fig. 2.
The Female has the forehead, the sides of the head, and all the lower parts yellow, the hind part of the head dusky; in other respects she resembles the male.
Dimensions nearly the same as in the male.
This species more resembles a Flycatcher than a Sylvia in its habits, as well as in the bristles at the base of the bill, and, in fact, is very nearly allied to the Muscicapa Selbii, vol. i. p. 46.
