OK 



54 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



second specimen, obtained soon after, \\-ere females, on the point of incuba- 

 tion. A third I'emale was sliot in the i'oUowing year, June 21. Supposed to 

 be a new species, it was described by Mr. Nuttall as Tyrannus cooperi. All 

 the specimens jirocured had their stomachs llUed with torn fragments of bees, 

 wasps, and similar insects. 



Mr. Nuttall, wlio watched the motions of two other liviiifr individuals of 

 this species, states that they apjjcared tyrannical and (puirrelsonie even with 

 each other. Their attacks were always accompanied with a whining, (pieru- 

 lous twitter. The disputes seemed to be about the occupancy of certain terri- 

 tories. One bird, a female, appeared to confine herself to a small clump of red 

 cedars, in the midst of a sandy piece of forest. From the tree-tops she kept 

 a sharp lookout for passing insects, and pursued them, as they appeared, with 

 great vigor and success, sometimes chasing them to the ground, and returning 

 to her perch with a mouthful which she devoured at her leisure. When 

 .she resumed her position, .she would occasionally quiver her wings and tail, 

 erect her crest, keeping up a whistling call of pU-pU, uttered with variations. 

 Besides this call the male had a short song which sounded like cli'-phc'hee. 



The nest of this pair Mr. Xuttall discovered in the horizontal liranch of a 

 tall red cedar, fifty feet from the ground. It was made externally of inter- 

 laced dead twigs of the cedar, lined with wiry stems, and dry gi'asses, and 

 fragments of lichens. It contained three young, which remained in the nest 

 twenty-three days, and were fed on beetles and other insects. Before they 

 left their nests they could fly as well as their parents. The male bird was 

 very watchful, and would frequently follow ]\Ir. Nuttall half a mile. They 

 were in no way timid, and allowed him to investigate them and their premi- 

 ses without any signs of alarm. 



In 1832 the same pair, apparently, took possession of a small juniper, near 

 the tree they had occupied the year before, in which, at the height of fifteen 

 feet, they placed their nest. It contained four eggs which, except in tlieir 

 superior size, were precisely similar to tliose of the "Wood Pewee, yellowish 

 cream-color, Avith dark brown and laA'ender-purple sjjots, thinly dispersed. 

 After remo\ing two of these eggs, the others were accidentally rolled out of the 

 nest. The pair constructed another nest, again in a cedar-tree, at a short dis- 

 tance. The next year they did not return to that locality, ilr. Nuttall after- 

 wards met with individuals of this species in the fir woods on the Columbia. 



On the 8th of August, 1832, Mr. Audubon, in company with Mr. Nuttall, 

 obtained the specimen of this species in Brookline, Mass., from which his 

 drawing was made. In the course of his journey farther east, Audubon 

 found it in Maine, on the Magdeleine Islands, and on the coast of Labrador. 

 He afterwards met with it in Texas. 



IMr. Boardman reports the Olive-sided Flycatcher as liaving of late years 

 been very abundant during tlie summer in the dead woods about the lakes 

 west of Calais, wliero formerly tliey were quite uncommon. ^Ir. Verrill 

 mentions it as a summer visitant in Oxford County, in the western part of 



