CANADA FLYCATCHER.
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.