Flycatcher, the popular name of many dentirostral or tooth-billed birds, of the order passeres and subfamily muscicapinoe They have bills of various lengths, generally broad and flattened at the base, with the culmen curved and the sides compressed to the emar-ginated tip; the gape is furnished with long and strong bristles, for the easier securing of their flying prey; the wings are usually long, as also is the tail; the tarsi short and weak; the toes long, the outer generally united at the base. The subfamily musicapinoe, includes the following genera: conophaga (Vieill.), with 7 species, found in the thick woods of tropical America; platyrhynchus (Desm.), with about 20 species, in the brushwood and trees of tropical America; platysteira (Jard. and Sel-by), African, with a dozen species; todirostrum (Less.), with 15 species, South American; mus-civora (Cuv.), 3 species, South American; rhi-pidura (Vig. and Horsf.), 40 species, found in India and its archipelago, New Zealand, and Australia; tchitrea (Less.), 20 species, in Africa, India, and its archipelago; monarcha (Vig. and Horsf.), 10 species, in Australia and the islands of the Indian ocean; seisurq (Vig. and Horsf.), 3 Australian species; myiagra Vig. and Horsf.), 14 species, in Australia and India; hemichelidon (Hodgs.), 2 species, in the hills of Nepaul; niltava (Hodgs.), 20 species, in India and its archipelago; muscicapa (Linn.), with 70 species, in most parts of the old continent; and setophaga (Swains.), nearly 20 species, in North and South America. The last is a very active genus, pursuing swarms of flies from the top to the bottom of a tree in a zigzag but nearly perpendicular direction, the clicking of the bills being distinctly heard as they snap up the insects in the course of a few seconds; the American redstart (S. ruticilla, Swains.), placed in the family sylvicolidoe by Prof. Baird (in his Pacific railroad report), is a good example of the genus.-There is probably no family of birds about which systematic writers on ornithology differ more than on that of the flycatchers.

Prof. Baird follows Burmeister in adopting the order insessorcs, and Cabanis in placing most of them in the suborder clamatores; he calls the whole family coleopteridoe, of which the subfamily tyrannince is what chiefly interests us here. The fork-tailed and swallow-tailed flycatchers belong to the genus milvulus (Swains.); the Arkansas, Cassin's, and Couch's flycatchers to the genus tyrannus (Cuv.); the great crested, Mexican, Cooper's, and Lawrence's, to the genus myiar-chus (Cab.); the black, pewee, and Say's, to the genus sayornis (Bonap.); the olive-sided to the genus contopus (Cab.); Traill's, the least, the small green-crested, and the yellow-bellied, to the genus empidonax (Cab.); the last four genera are included in the genus myiobhis of Gray. The Canada and Bonaparte's flycatchers are warblers, belonging to the genus myiodioc-tes (Aud.) or setophaga (Swains.); the solitary, white-eyed, warbling, yellow-throated, red-eyed, Hutton's, and the black-headed flycatchers are vireos; the blue-gray flycatcher belongs to the family of titmice, and to the genus po-liopjtila (Sclater). The flycatchers are active and fearless, and very beneficial to man by destroying flies, moths, and various insects and grubs injurious to vegetation and to animals.