Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/304

 296 FLYCATCHER FLYING FISH raphani (Harris) attacks in the same way the radish. The A. scalaris and canicularis give rise to fringed maggots, which have heen not unfrequently ejected from the human body, having probably been swallowed with vegeta- bles in which decay had commenced ; as the eggs in many instances belong to species de- positing in the ordure of privies, the larvae might remain alive for a considerable period in the intestines of man ; eggs of other muscidce might be introduced on meats, fruits, salads, vegetables, and in impure water. In the " Transactions " of the entomological society of London (vol. ii., 183T), Mr. Hope gives a tabular account of 37 cases in which maggots of the muscidce infested the human body, many of which were recognized as belonging to M. domestica, G, vomitoria, and /S. carnaria ; and many cases have since been recorded in medi- cal journals. FLYCATCHER, the popular name of many dentirostral or tooth-billed birds, of the order passeres and subfamily muscicapina. They nave 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 musicapina 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 ; mits- civora (Cuv.), 3 species, South American ; rhi- ?idura (Vig. and Horsf.), 40 species, found in adia and its archipelago, New Zealand, and Australia ; tchitrea (Less.), 20 species, in Af- rica, India, and its archipelago; monarcha (Vig. and Horsf.), 10 species, in Australia and the islands of the Indian ocean ; seisura (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 conti- nent ; and setophaga (Swains.), nearly 20 spe- cies, 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 zig- zag 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 sylmcolidce by Prof. Baird (in his Pacific railroad report), is a good example of the genus. There is prob- ably no family of birds about which syste- matic writers on ornithology differ more than on that of the flycatchers. Prof. Baird follows Burmeister in adopting the order insessores, and Cabanis in placing most of them in the suborder clamatores ; he calls the whole family coltopterida, 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- cJius (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 myiobius 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 flycatch- ers are vireos ; the blue-gray flycatcher belongs to the family of titmice, and to the genus po- lioptila (Sclater). The flycatchers are active and fearless, and very beneficial to man by de- stroying flies, moths, and various insects and grubs injurious to vegetation and to animals. FLYING FISH (exocatus, Linn.), a genus of fishes belonging to the order pharyngognatM and the family scomberesocidm (Muller), con- taining, according to Valenciennes, 33 species. This genus is at once recognizable by its large pectoral fins, capable of being used as para- chutes, and to a certain extent as wings ; other fishes have the faculty of leaping out of the water and of sustaining themselves in the air for a short time, but the exocceti far excel these, and approach much nearer in this act the true flight of birds than does the flying dragon or the flying squirrel. Navigators in all tropical seas are familiar with these sprightly fishes, which relieve the monotony of ocean life as birds do the silence of the woods. The characters of the long pectorals, the strength of the muscles which move them, and the size of the bony arch to which they are attached, are the essen- tial conditions of their flight. Numerous ob- servations prove that these shining bands pur- sue their flights when no danger threatens, in the full enjoyment of happiness and security, for mere sport, and probably as a necessity of their structure. Their lot indeed would be far from enviable were their flights the frantic at- tempts to escape from pursuing bonitos and dolphins (coryphwna), for in the air their dan- ger is quite as great from the albatross, frigate pelicans, petrels, and other ocean birds. This habit belongs to the same class of phenomena as the flying of the dragon and squirrel, the climbing of trees by the anabas, and the travel- ling across the land by the common eel. Hum- boldt drew attention to the great muscular force necessary for the flight of these fishes ; he rec- ognized that the nerves supplying the pectorals are three times as large as those going to the ventrals; the muscular power is sufficient to