The flight of the Small Green Flycatcher is performed by short glidings, supported by protracted flaps of the wings, not unlike those of the Pewee Flycatcher; and it is often seen, while passing low through the woods or following the margins of a creek, to drink in the manner of swallows, or sweep after its prey, until it alights. Like the King Bird, it always migrates by day.
Muscicapa acadica, Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 68.
Small Green Crested Flycatcher, Muscicapa querula, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 77. pl. 13. fig. 3.
Small Pewee, Nuttall, Manual, part i. p. 288.
Adult Male. Plate CXLIV. Fig. 1.
Bill of ordinary length, depressed (much deeper than in M. Traillii), tapering to a point, the lateral outlines a little convex; upper mandible with the sides convex, the edges sharp, slightly notched close upon the tip, which is deflected and acute; lower mandible convex below, acute, short. Nostrils basal, lateral, elliptical. Head of moderate size, neck short, general form slender. Feet of moderate length, slender; tarsus compressed, covered anteriorly with short scutella, sharp behind; toes free; claws compressed, arched, acute.
Plumage soft and tufty; feathers of the head narrow and erectile. Wings of moderate length, third quill longest, first and fourth equal. Tail rather long, slightly rounded.
Bill dark brown above, flesh-coloured beneath. Iris hazel. Feet greyish-blue. The general colour of the plumage above is light greenish-olive. Quills and tail wood-brown margined with pale greenish-olive; secondary coverts, and first row of small coverts tipped with yellowish-white, forming two bands across the wing, the secondary quills broadly edged and tipped with the same. A very narrow ring of greyish-white round the eye; throat of the same colour; sides of the neck and fore part of the breast olivaceous, tinged with grey; the rest of the under parts yellowish-white.
Length 5½ inches, extent of wings 8½; bill along the ridge 6⁄12, along the edge ¾; tarsus 7⁄12.
Adult Female. Plate CXLIV. Fig. 2.