_Muscicapa canadensis_, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 327. (_Muscicapa
canadensis cinerea_, BRISSON, II, 406, tab. 39, fig.
4.)—GMELIN.—WILSON, III, pl. xxvi, fig. 2.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, pl.
ciii. _Setophaga can._ SWAINS.; RICH.; GRAY. _Myiodioctes can._
AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. ciii.—BREWER, Pr. Bost. Soc. VI, 5 (nest
and eggs).—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1854, 111 (Ecuador; winter); 1855,
143 (Bogota); 1858, 451 (Ecuador).—IB. Catal. 1861, 34, no.
204.—SCLATER & SALVIN, Ibis, 1859, 11 (Guatemala).—LAWRENCE, Ann.
N. Y. Lyc. VI, 1862.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 294; Rev.
239.—SAMUELS, 247. _Euthlypis can._ CAB. Mus. Hein. 1850, 1851,
18; Jour. Orn. 1860, 326 (Costa Rica). _Sylvia pardalina_, BON.;
NUTT. _Sylvicola pardalina_, BON. _Myiodioctes pardalina_, BON. _?
Muscicapa bonapartei_, AUD. Orn. Biog. I, 1831, 27, pl. v.
_Setophaga bon._ RICH. _Wilsonia bon._ BON. _Sylvania bon._ NUTT.
_? Myiodioctes bon._ AUD. Syn.—IB. Birds Am. II, 1841, 17, pl.
xvii.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 295. _Setophaga nigricincta_,
LAFR. Rev. Zoöl. 1843, 292; 1844, 79.
SP. CHAR. Upper part bluish-ash; a ring around the eye, with a line
running to the nostrils, and the whole under part (except the
tail-coverts, which are white), bright yellow. Centres of the feathers
in the anterior half of the crown, the cheeks, continuous with a line
on the side of the neck to the breast, and a series of spots across
the forepart of the breast, black. Tail-feathers unspotted. _Female_
similar, with the black of the head and breast less distinct. In the
_young_ obsolete. Length, 5.34; wing, 2.67; tail, 2.50.
HAB. Whole Eastern Province of United States, west to the Missouri;
north to Lake Winnipeg; Eastern Mexico to Guatemala, and south to
Bogota and Ecuador (SCLATER). Not noted from West Indies.
HABITS. This is a migratory species, abundant during its passage, in
most of the Atlantic States. It breeds, though not abundantly, in New
York and Massachusetts, and in the regions north of latitude 42°. How
far northward it is found is not well ascertained, probably as far,
however, as the wooded country extends. It was met with on Winnepeg
River, by Mr. Kennicott, the second of June. It winters in Central and
in Northern South America, having been procured at Bogota, in
Guatemala, and in Costa Rica, in large numbers.
Mr. Audubon states that he found this bird breeding in the mountainous
regions of Pennsylvania, and afterwards in Maine, New Brunswick, Nova
Scotia, Newfoundland, and Labrador. Although he describes with some
minuteness its nests, yet his description of their position and
structure is so entirely different in all respects from those that
have been found in Massachusetts, that I am constrained to believe he
has been mistaken in his identifications, and that those he supposed
to belong to this species were really the nests of a different bird.
“In Vermont,” Mr. Charles S. Paine, of Randolph, informs me, “the
Canada Flycatcher is a summer visitant, and is first seen about the
18th of May. They do not spread themselves over the woods, like most
of our small fly-catching birds, but keep near the borders, where
there is a low growth of bushes, and where they may be heard
throughout the day singing their regular chant. A few pairs may
occasionally be found in the same neighborhood. At other times only a
single pair can be found in quite a wide extent of territory of
similar character. They build their nests, as well as I can judge,
about the first of June, as the young are hatched out and on the wing
about the last of that month, or the first of July. I have never found
a nest, but I think they are built on the ground. They are silent
after the first of July, and are rarely to be seen after that period.”
The song of this bird is a very pleasing one, though heard but seldom,
and only in a few localities in Massachusetts.
Near Washington Dr. Coues found the Canada Flycatcher only a spring
and autumnal visitant, at which seasons they were abundant. They
frequented high open woods, and kept mostly in the lower branches of
the trees, and also in the more open undergrowth of marshy places.
They arrive the last week in April and remain about two weeks,
arriving in fall the first week in September, and remaining until the
last of that month.
The first well-identified nest of this bird that came to my knowledge
was obtained in Lynn, Mass., by Mr. George O. Welch, in June, 1856. It
was built in a tussock of grass, in swampy woods, concealed by the
surrounding rank vegetation, in the midst of which it was placed. It
was constructed entirely of pine-needles and a few fragments of
decayed leaves, grapevine bark, fine stems, and rootlets. These were
so loosely interwoven that the nest could not be removed without great
care to keep its several portions together. Its diameter was three and
a half inches, and it was very nearly flat. Its greatest depth, at the
centre of its depression, was hardly half an inch. It contained four
young, and an unhatched egg.
Another nest found in June, 1864, by the same observing naturalist,
was also obtained in the neighborhood. This was built in a tussock of
meadow-grass, in the midst of a small boggy piece of swamp, in which
were a few scattered trees and bushes. The ground was so marshy that
it could be crossed only with difficulty, and by stepping from one
tussock of reedy herbage to another. In the centre of one of these
bunches the nest was concealed. It measures six inches in its larger
diameter, and has a height of two and a quarter inches. The cavity of
this nest is two and three quarters inches wide, and one and three
quarters deep. It is very strongly constructed of pine-needles,
interwoven with fine strips of bark, dry deciduous leaves, stems of
dry grasses, sedges, etc. The whole is firmly and compactly interwoven
with and strengthened around the rim of the cavity by strong, wiry,
and fibrous roots. The nest is very carefully and elaborately lined
with the black fibrous roots of some plant. The eggs, which were five
in number, measure .72 of an inch in length by .56 in breadth. Their
ground-color is a clear and brilliant white, and this is beautifully
marked with dots and small blotches of blended brown, purple, and
violet, varying in shades and tints, and grouped in a wreath around
the larger end.