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FLYCATCHER , a name introduced in See also:ornithology by See also:Ray, being a See also:translation of the Muscicapa of older authors, and applied by See also:Pennant to an extremely See also:common See also:English See also:bird, the M. grisola of See also:Linnaeus. It has since been used in a See also:general and very vague way for a See also:great many small birds from all parts of the See also:world, which have the See also:habit of catching flies on the wing. Ornithologists who have trusted too much to this characteristic and to certain merely superficial correlations of structure, especially those exhibited by a broad and rather See also:flat See also:bill and a gape beset by strong hairs or bristles, have associated under the See also:title of Muscicapidae an exceedingly heterogeneous assemblage of forms much reduced in number by later systematists. Great advance has been made in establishing as See also:independent families the Todidae and Eurylaemidae, as well as in excluding from it various members of the Ampelidae, Cotingidae, Tyrannidae, Vireonidae, Mniotiltidae, and perhaps others, which had been placed within its limits. These steps have See also:left the Muscicapidae a purely Old-World See also:family of the See also:- ORDER
- ORDER (through Fr. ordre, for earlier ordene, from Lat. ordo, ordinis, rank, service, arrangement; the ultimate source is generally taken to be the root seen in Lat. oriri, rise, arise, begin; cf. " origin ")
- ORDER, HOLY
order Passeres, and the See also:chief difficulty now seems to See also:lie in separating it from the Campephagidae and the Laniidae. Only a very few of the forms of flycatchers (which, after all the deductions above mentioned, may bereckoned to include some 6o genera or subgenera, and perhaps 250 See also:species) can here be even named.'
The best-known bird of this family is that which also happens to be the type of the Linnaean genus Muscicapa—the spotted or See also:grey flycatcher (M. grisola). It is a common summer visitant to nearly the whole of See also:Europe, and is found throughout Great See also:Britain, though less abundant in See also:Scotland than in See also:England, as well as in many parts of See also:Ireland, where, however, it seems to be but locally and sparingly distributed. It is one of the latest migrants to arrive, and seldom reaches the See also:British Islands till the latter See also:part of May, when it may be seen, a small dust-coloured bird, sitting on the posts or railings of gardens and See also:fields, ever and anon springing into the See also:air, seizing with an audible snap of its bill some passing See also:insect as it flies, and returning to the spot it has quitted, or taking up some similar station to keep See also:watch as before. It has no See also:song, but merely a plaintive or peevish See also:call-See also:note, uttered from See also:- TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
- TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
- TIME, STANDARD
time to time with a jerking gesture of the wings and tail. It makes a neat See also:nest, built among the small twigs which sprout from the See also:bole of a large See also:- TREE (0. Eng. treo, treow, cf. Dan. tree, Swed. Odd, tree, trd, timber; allied forms are found in Russ. drevo, Gr. opus, oak, and 36pv, spear, Welsh derw, Irish darog, oak, and Skr. dare, wood)
- TREE, SIR HERBERT BEERBOHM (1853- )
tree, fixed in the branches of some plant trained against a See also:wall, or placed in any hole of the wall itself that may be left by the falling of a See also:brick or See also:- STONE
- STONE (0. Eng. shin; the word is common to Teutonic languages, cf. Ger. Stein, Du. steen, Dan. and Swed. sten; the root is also seen in Gr. aria, pebble)
- STONE, CHARLES POMEROY (1824-1887)
- STONE, EDWARD JAMES (1831-1897)
- STONE, FRANK (1800-1859)
- STONE, GEORGE (1708—1764)
- STONE, LUCY [BLACKWELL] (1818-1893)
- STONE, MARCUS (184o— )
- STONE, NICHOLAS (1586-1647)
stone. The eggs are from four to six in number, of a See also:pale greenish-See also:blue, closely blotched or freckled with See also:rust-See also:colour. Silent and inconspicuous as is this bird, its See also:constant pursuit of flies in the closest vicinity of houses makes it a See also:familiar See also:object to almost everybody. A second British species is the pied flycatcher (M. atricapilla), a much rarer bird, and in England not often seen except in the hilly See also:country extending from the See also:Peak of See also:Derbyshire to Cumber-See also:land, and more numerous in the See also:Lake See also:District than elsewhere. It is not common in Scotland, and has only once been observed in Ireland. More of a woodland bird than the former, the brightly-contrasted See also:black and See also:- WHITE
- WHITE, ANDREW DICKSON (1832– )
- WHITE, GILBERT (1720–1793)
- WHITE, HENRY KIRKE (1785-1806)
- WHITE, HUGH LAWSON (1773-1840)
- WHITE, JOSEPH BLANCO (1775-1841)
- WHITE, RICHARD GRANT (1822-1885)
- WHITE, ROBERT (1645-1704)
- WHITE, SIR GEORGE STUART (1835– )
- WHITE, SIR THOMAS (1492-1567)
- WHITE, SIR WILLIAM ARTHUR (1824--1891)
- WHITE, SIR WILLIAM HENRY (1845– )
- WHITE, THOMAS (1628-1698)
- WHITE, THOMAS (c. 1550-1624)
white plumage of the See also:cock, together with his agreeable song, readily attracts See also:attention where it occurs. It is a summer visitant to all western Europe, but farther eastward its See also:place is taken by a nearly allied species (M. collaris) in which the white of the See also:throat and See also:breast extends like a See also:collar See also:round the See also:neck. A See also:fourth See also:European species (M. parva), distinguished by its very small See also:size and red breast, has also strayed some three or four times to the extreme See also:south-See also:west of England. This last belongs to a See also:group of more eastern range, which has received generic recognition under the name of Erythrosterna, and it ha s several relations in See also:Asia and particularly in See also:India, while the See also:allies of the pied flycatchers (Ficedula of See also:Brisson) are chiefly of See also:African origin, and those of the grey or spotted flycatcher (Muscicapa proper2) are common to the two continents.
One of the most remarkable See also:groups of Muscicapidae is that known as the See also:paradise flycatchers, forming the genus Tchitrea of See also:Lesson. In nearly all the species the See also:males are distinguished by the growth of exceedingly See also:long feathers in their tail, and by their putting on, for some part of the See also:year at least, a plumage generally white, but almost always quite different from that worn by the See also:females, which is of a more or less deep See also:chestnut or See also:bay colour, though in both sexes the See also:crown is of a glossy See also:steel-blue. They are found See also:pretty well throughout See also:Africa and tropical Asia to See also:Japan, and seem to affect the deep shade of forests rather than the open country. The best-known species is perhaps the See also:Indian T. paradisi; but the See also:Chinese T. incii, and the See also:Japanese T. princeps, from being very commonly represented by the artists of those nations on screens, fans and the like, are hardly less so; and the cock of the last named, with his bill of a pale greenish-blue and
' Of the 3o genera or subgenera which Swainson included in his Natural Arrangement and Relations of the Family of Flycatchers (published in 1838), at least 19 do not belong to the Muscicapidae at all, and one of them, Todus, not even to the order Passeres. It is perhaps impossible to name any ornithological See also:work whose substance so fully belies its title as does this See also:treatise. Swainson wrote it filled with faith in the so-called " Quinary See also:System "—that fanciful theory, invented by W. S. Macleay, which misled and kept back so many of the best English zoologists of his See also:generation from the truth,—and, unconsciously swayed by his See also:bias, his See also:judgment was warped to See also:fit his See also:hypothesis.
2 By some writers this See also:section is distinguished as Butalis of See also:Boie, but to do so seems contrary to See also:rule.
eyes surrounded by See also:bare skin of the same colour—though these are characters possessed in some degree by all the species—seems to be the most beautiful of the genus. T. bourbonnensis, which is See also:peculiar to the islands of See also:Mauritius and See also:Reunion, appears to be the only species in which the outward difference of the sexes is but slight. In T. corvina of the See also:Seychelles, the adult male is wholly black, and his See also:middle tail-feathers are not only very long but very broad. In T. mutate of See also:Madagascar, some of the males are found in a blackish plumage, though with the elongated median rectrices white, while in others white pre-dominates over the whole See also:body; but whether this See also:sex is here actually dimorphic, or whether the one See also:dress is a passing phase of the other, is at See also:present undetermined. Some of the African species, of which many have been described, seem always to retain the rufous plumage, but the long tail-feathers serve to See also:mark the males.
A few other groups are distinguished by the brilliant blue they exhibit, as Myiagra azurea, and others as Monarcha (or See also:Arses) chrysomela by their See also:golden yellow. The Australian forms assigned to the Muscicapidae are very varied. Sisura inquieta has some of the habits of a See also:water-See also:wagtail (Motacilla), and hence has received the name of " dishwasher," bestowed in many parts of England on its analogue; and the many species of Rhipidura or fantailed flycatchers, which occur in various parts of the Australian Region, have See also:manners still more singular—turning over in the air, it is said, like a See also:tumbler See also:pigeon, as they catch their See also:prey; but concerning the mode of See also:life of the See also:majority of the Muscicapidae, and especially of the numerous African forms, hardly anything is known. (A. N.)
FLYGARE-CARLEN, EMILIE (1807-1892), See also:Swedish novelist, was See also:born in Stromstad on the 8th of See also:August 1807. Her See also:father, Rutger See also:- SMITH
- SMITH, ADAM (1723–1790)
- SMITH, ALEXANDER (183o-1867)
- SMITH, ANDREW JACKSON (1815-1897)
- SMITH, CHARLES EMORY (1842–1908)
- SMITH, CHARLES FERGUSON (1807–1862)
- SMITH, CHARLOTTE (1749-1806)
- SMITH, COLVIN (1795—1875)
- SMITH, EDMUND KIRBY (1824-1893)
- SMITH, G
- SMITH, GEORGE (1789-1846)
- SMITH, GEORGE (184o-1876)
- SMITH, GEORGE ADAM (1856- )
- SMITH, GERRIT (1797–1874)
- SMITH, GOLDWIN (1823-191o)
- SMITH, HENRY BOYNTON (1815-1877)
- SMITH, HENRY JOHN STEPHEN (1826-1883)
- SMITH, HENRY PRESERVED (1847– )
- SMITH, JAMES (1775–1839)
- SMITH, JOHN (1579-1631)
- SMITH, JOHN RAPHAEL (1752–1812)
- SMITH, JOSEPH, JR
- SMITH, MORGAN LEWIS (1822–1874)
- SMITH, RICHARD BAIRD (1818-1861)
- SMITH, ROBERT (1689-1768)
- SMITH, SIR HENRY GEORGE WAKELYN
- SMITH, SIR THOMAS (1513-1577)
- SMITH, SIR WILLIAM (1813-1893)
- SMITH, SIR WILLIAM SIDNEY (1764-1840)
- SMITH, SYDNEY (1771-1845)
- SMITH, THOMAS SOUTHWOOD (1788-1861)
- SMITH, WILLIAM (1769-1839)
- SMITH, WILLIAM (c. 1730-1819)
- SMITH, WILLIAM (fl. 1596)
- SMITH, WILLIAM FARRAR (1824—1903)
- SMITH, WILLIAM HENRY (1808—1872)
- SMITH, WILLIAM HENRY (1825—1891)
- SMITH, WILLIAM ROBERTSON (1846-'894)
Smith, was a retired See also:sea-See also:captain who had settled down as a small See also:merchant, and she often accompanied him on the voyages he made along the See also:coast. She married in 1827 a See also:doctor named Axel Flygare, and went with him to live in the See also:province of Smaland. After his See also:death in 1833 she returned to her old See also:home and published in 1838 her first novel, Waldemar See also:Klein. In the next year she removed to See also:Stockholm, and married, in 1841, the jurist and poet, Johan See also:Gabriel Carlen (1814-1875). Her See also:house became a See also:- MEETING (from " to meet," to come together, assemble, 0. Eng. metals ; cf. Du. moeten, Swed. mota, Goth. gamotjan, &c., derivatives of the Teut. word for a meeting, seen in O. Eng. Wit, moot, an assembly of the people; cf. witanagemot)
meeting-place for Stockholm men of letters, and for the next twelve years she produced one or two novels annually. The premature death of her son Edvard Flygare (1829-1853), who had already published three books, showing great promise, was followed by six years of silence, after which she resumed her See also:writing until 1884. The most famous of her tales are Rosen pa Tistelon (1842; Eng. trans. The See also:Rose of Tistelon, 1842); Enslingen pa Johannesskaret (1846; Eng. trans. The See also:Hermit, 4 vols., 1853); and Ell Kopemanshus i skargarden (1859; The Merchant's House on the Cliffs). Fru Carlen published in 1878 Minnen of svenskt forfattarlif 184o-1860, and in 1887-1888 three volumes of Efterskord fran en 8o- wrings forfattarbana, containing her last tales. She died at Stockholm on the 5th of See also:February 1892. Her daughter, See also:Rosa Carlen (1836-1883), was also a popular novelist.
Emilie Flygare-Carlen's novels were collected in See also:thirty-one volumes (Stockholm, 1869-1875).
End of Article: FLYCATCHER
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