Audubon's Birds/BIRDSVER1_3.BIN/dp/0009/00097.txt

Text File | 1992-08-27 | 7KB | 136 lines

$Unique_ID{BRD00097}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Least Pewee Flycatcher}
$Subject{Muscicapinae; Muscicapa; Empidonax; pusilla; minimus; Least Pewee
Flycatcher; Least Flycatcher}
$Journal{Birds of America:  Volume I}
$Volume{Vol. 1:236-238}
$Family{Muscicapinae}
$Genus{Muscicapa; Empidonax}
$Species{pusilla; minimus}
$Common_Name{Least Pewee Flycatcher; Least Flycatcher}
$Log{
Plate LXVI*00097p1.scf
Family*00080.txt
Genus*00084.txt
}

       Portions copyright (c) Creative Multimedia Corp., 1990-91, 1992

                       B I R D S   O F   A M E R I C A .

                    By John James Audubon, F. R. SS. L. & E.

                   ------------------------------------------
                                    VOL. I.
                        --------------------------------


                            LEAST PEWEE FLYCATCHER.
                 [Least Flycatcher (see also Least Flycatcher.]


                           MUSCICAPA PUSILLA, Swains.
                              [Empidonax minimus.]


                               PLATE LXVI.--MALE.


     This small and plainly-coloured species, first described by my friend
WILLIAM SWAINSON, Esq. in the Fauna Boreali-Americana, under the name of
"Tyrannula pusilla," is a common inhabitant of the northern and north-western
parts of America, but has not, I believe, been known to pass along our Atlantic
shores.  Dr. RICHARDSON, who observed it in the Fur Countries, says that "it was
first seen by us at Carlton House, on the 19th of May, flitting about for a few
days among low bushes on the banks of the river, after which it retired to the
moist shady woods lying farther north."
     My friend THOMAS NUTTALL, Esq. procured this bird on Wapatoo Island, which
is formed by the junction of the Multnomah with the Columbia, 20 miles long, and
10 broad.  The land is high and extremely fertile, and in most parts supplied
with a heavy growth of cotton-wood, ash, and sweet-willow.  But the chief wealth
of tic island consists of the numerous ponds in the interior, abounding with the
common arrow-head, Sagittaria sagittifolia, to the root of which is attached a
bulb growing beneath it in the mud.  This bulb, to which the Indians give the
name of Wapatoo, is the great article of food, and almost the staple article of
commerce, on the Columbia.  It is never out of season, so that at all times of
the year the valley is frequented by the neighbouring Indians, who come to
gather it.  It is collected chiefly by the women, who take a light canoe in a
pond, where the water is as high as the breast, and by means of their toes,
separate the root from the bulb, which on being freed from the mud rises
immediately to the surface of the water, and is thrown into the canoe.  This
plant is found through the whole extent of the Columbia Valley, but does not
grow farther eastward.
     "I observed," he continues, "a male of this species very active and
cheerful, making his chief residence in a spreading oak, on the open border of a
piece of forest.  As usual, he took his station at the extremity of a dead
branch, from whence, at pretty quick intervals, he darted after passing insects.
When at rest, he raised his erectile crest, and in great earnest called out
sishui, sishui, and sometimes tsishea, tsishea, in a lisping tone, rather
quickly, and sometimes in great haste, so as to run both calls together.  This
brief, rather loud, quaint and monotonous ditty, was continued for hours
together, at which time, so great was our little actor's abstraction, that he
allowed a near approach without any material apprehension.  As I could not
discover any nest, I have little doubt it was concealed either in some knot or
laid on some horizontal branch."
     I found this species both in Newfoundland and on the coast of Labrador in
considerable numbers.  In the latter country, where the bushes are low and the
fir-trees seldom attain a height of thirty feet, I observed that it preferred
for its residence the narrow and confined valleys which at that season (July)
are clothed with luxuriant herbage, and abound in insects, to which this little
Flycatcher gives chase with great activity, returning, as is the well-known
habit of all our small species, to the twig or top of the plant which it has
selected for its look-out station.  Two males I observed one morning, were
constantly engaged in pursuing each other, when at times they would mount to
some height in the air, there meet, snap their bills violently, separate, and
return to their posts.  Their continued cries induced me to believe that they
had females and nests in the valley; and after searching a good while, I had the
gratification of finding one of them placed between two small twigs of a bush
not above four feet in height.  This nest was composed of delicate dry grasses
and fibrous roots, so thinly arranged as to enable me to see through it.  It
contained five eggs, so nearly resembling those of our Little Red-start
Flycatcher, that, had I not started the female from the nest, I should have been
induced to pronounce them the property of that bird.  They measured five and a
half eighths by four-eighths, and were rather sharp at the smaller end, pure
white, thinly spotted, and marked with different tints of light red, with a few
dots of umber, principally toward the apex.  Many of the young were able to fly
before our departure, which took place on the 12th of August; and I think that
the pair which I found breeding must have been later than usual in arriving in
that country, as a very few days afterwards I found a good number fully fledged,
and travelling along the shore of St.  George's Bay in Newfoundland.  This
species may perhaps breed in Nova Scotia, as I have seen a specimen obtained
there in the collection of my young friend THOMAS M'CULLOCH, Esq. of Halifax.


     TYRANNULA PUSILLA, LITTLE TYRANT FLYCATCHER, Swains. and Rich. F. Bor.
       Amer., vol. ii. p. 144.
     LITTLE TYRANT FLYCATCHER, Muscicapa pusilla, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. v.
       p. 288.


     Third quill longest, fourth scarcely shorter, second nearly one-twelfth
shorter, and exceeding the first by three and a quarter twelfths; tail slightly
emarginate; upper parts light greenish-brown; loral band whitish, a narrow pale
ring surrounding the eye; wings olive-brown, with two bands of dull white,
secondaries margined with the same; tail olive-brown, the lateral feathers
lighter, the outer web pale brownish-grey; fore part of neck and a portion of
the breast and sides ash-grey, the rest of the lower parts pale yellow.
     Male, 5 2/12, wing, 2 5/12.
     Columbia river.  Fur Countries.  Labrador.  Newfoundland.  Rare in the
Atlantic States.



                                 THE WHITE OAK.


     QUERCUS PRINUS, Willd., Sp. Pl., vol. iv. p. 439.  Pursch, Fl. Amer.,
       vol. ii. p. 633.--QUERCUS PRINUS PALUSTRIS, Mich., Arb. Forest.
       de l'Amer. Sept., vol. ii. p. 51. Pl. 7.--MONOECIA POLYANDRIA, Linn.
       --AMENTACEAE, Juss.

     Leaves oblongs-oval, acute, largely toothed, the teeth nearly equal,
dilated, and callous at the tip; cupule craterate, attenuated at the base; acorn
ovate.  This species grows in low shady woods, and along the margins of rivers,
from Pennsylvania to Florida.  The wood is porous, and of inferior quality.