_Muscicapa minuta_, WILSON, Am. Orn. VI, 1812, 62, pl. 1, fig. 5.—
AUD. Orn. Biog. V, pl. ccccxxxiv, fig. 3.—IB. Birds Am. I, pl.
lxvii. _Sylvia minuta_, BON. _Wilsonia m._ BON. List, 1838.
_Myiodioctes minutus_, BAIRD, Rev. Am. Birds, 1864, 241. _Sylvania
pumilia_, NUTT. Man. I, 1840, 334.
SP. CHAR. Wings short, the second quills longest. Tail of
moderate-length, even. General color of upper parts light
greenish-brown; wings and tail dark olive-brown, the outer feathers of
the latter with a terminal white spot on the inner web; a narrow white
ring surrounding the eye; two bands of dull white on the wings; sides
of the head and neck greenish-yellow; the rest of the lower parts pale
yellow, gradually fading into white behind. Male, 5 inches long;
extent, 8.25 inches.
HAB. Eastern United States.
HABITS. All that is known in regard to this species we receive from
Wilson and Audubon, and there is a decided discrepancy in their
several statements. Wilson states that his figure was taken from a
young male shot on the 24th of April, but in what locality he does not
mention. He adds that he afterwards shot several individuals in
various parts of New Jersey, particularly in swamps. He found these in
June, and has no doubt they breed there.
Audubon claims that Wilson’s drawing was a copy from his own of a bird
shot by him in Kentucky on the margin of a pond. He throws a doubt as
to the correctness of Wilson’s statement that they have been found in
New Jersey, as no one else has ever met with any there. That may be,
however, and Wilson’s statement yet be correct. The same argument
carried out would reject the very existence of the bird itself, as no
well-authenticated records of its occurrence since then can be found.
They are at least too doubtful to be received as unquestionable until
the genuine bird can be produced. Mr. Nuttall, it is true, states that
Mr. Charles Pickering obtained a specimen of this bird many years ago,
near Salem, Mass., and that he had himself also seen it in the same
State, at the approach of winter. In the fall of 1836, when the writer
resided in Roxbury, a cat caught and brought into the house a small
Flycatcher, which was supposed to be of this species. It was given to
Mr. Audubon, who assented to its correct identification, but
afterwards made no mention of it. The presumption, therefore, is that
we may have been mistaken.
In regard to its habits, Wilson represents it as “remarkably active,
running, climbing, and darting about among the opening buds and
blossoms with extraordinary agility.” Audubon states that in its
habits it is closely allied with the _pusillus_ and the _mitratus_,
being fond of low thick coverts in swamps and by the margin of pools.
He also attributes to it a song of rather pleasing notes, enunciated
at regular intervals, loud enough to be heard at the distance of sixty
yards. These peculiarities seem to separate it from the true
Flycatchers and to place it among the Warblers.
Myiodioctes pusillus, BONAP.