(_Contopus borealis_) Flycatcher family
_Length_--7 to 7.5 inches. About an inch longer than the
English sparrow.
_Male and Female_--Dusky olive or grayish brown above; head
darkest. Wings and tail blackish brown, the former sometimes,
but not always, margined and tipped with dusky white. Throat
yellowish white; other under parts slightly lighter shade than
above. Olive-gray on sides. A tuft of yellowish-white, downy
feathers on flanks. Bristles at base of bill.
_Range_--From Labrador to Panama. Winters in the tropics.
Nests usually north of United States, but it also breeds in
the Catskills.
_Migrations_--May. September. Resident only in northern part
of its range.
Only in the migrations may people south of Massachusetts hope to see
this flycatcher, which can be distinguished from the rest of its kin
by the darker under parts, and by the fluffy, yellowish-white tufts of
feathers on its flanks. Its habits have the family characteristics: it
takes its food on the wing, suddenly sallying forth from its perch,
darting about midair to seize its prey, then as suddenly returning to
its identical point of vantage, usually in some distended, dead limb
in the tree-top; it is pugnacious, bold, and tyrannical; mopish and
inert when not on the hunt, but wonderfully alert and swift when in
pursuit of insect or feathered foe. The short necks of the flycatchers
make their heads appear large for their bodies, a peculiarity slightly
emphasized in this member of the family.
High up in some evergreen tree, well out on a branch, over which the
shapeless mass of twigs and moss that serves as a nest is saddled,
four or five buff-speckled eggs are laid, and by some special
dispensation rarely fall out of their insecure cradle. A sharp, loud
whistle, _wheu--o-wheu-o-wheu-o_, rings out from the throat of this
olive-sided tyrant, warning all intruders off the premises; but
however harshly he may treat the rest of the feathered world, he has
only gentle devotion to offer his brooding mate.