400 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



men at Mackinac Island, August 15, 1890; on the Charity Islands, Saginaw 

 Bay, N. A. Wood found it from August 18 to October 10, 1910; Wood 

 and Frothingham saw it in Crawford County, June 16, and Oscoda county, 

 June 18, on the tops of pines, where it was rare, and Wood again recorded 

 it several times in Ontonagon county in July and August, 1904, and found 

 it common on Isle Royale from August 17 to 28 the same year; the writer 

 saw two individuals along the Au Sable at Grayling, Crawford county, 

 June 8, 1902, and F. H. Chapin records it as seen in Emmet, Cheboygan 

 and Charlevoix counties in August and September. E. A. Doolittle found 

 several in Baraga and Marquette counties in June, 1905, and several pairs 

 on Grand Island, jMunising Harbor, in the summer of 1906. Max M. Peet 

 noted it on Isle Royale, Lake Superior, in 1905, as follows: "Seen at Rock 

 Harbor in the tamarack and spruce swamps; Siskowit Bay and Washington 

 Harbor, July 17 to September 3. A rather common resident and prol^ably 

 nesting, although no nests were found. A pair was taken July 17 in a 

 tamarack swamp. In nearly every swamp visited two or three pairs were 

 found. As a rule found in pairs, sometimes with a third, perhaps a young 

 one" (Rep. Mich. Geol. Surv., 1908, p. 358). So far as we know no Michigan 

 nest is recorded, but there can be no doubt whatever that the bird breeds 

 wherever found between the middle of June and last of July. 



The nest is commonly placed in an evergreen, a horizontal lu-anch being 

 preferred, and at a height of fifteen to fifty feet from the ground. It is 

 built of twigs, roots and moss, is decidedly small considering the size of the 

 bird, but very compactly built and securely lodged in its place, although 

 so shallow that the eggs may be easily shaken out. These are usually 

 three in number, cream colored, spotted with different shades of brown 

 and purple, somewhat resembling large specimens of the Wood Pewee's 

 eggs. They average about .82 by .71 inches. Captain Bendire states that 

 the period of incubation does not exceed fourteen days, and that the young 

 are said to remain in the nest about three weeks. 



The Olive-sided Flycatcher has a habit of perching on the tops of high 

 trees, either green or dead, from which it makes long sallies after insects 

 and utters occasionally its loud and striking call notes. These are very 

 differently described by different writers, but to us they always suggest 

 the note of the Piping Plover. Bendire compares the ordinary call to that 

 of the Wood Pewee, but states that it consists of three notes like "hip- 

 pui-whee," while the alarm note he gives as "puip-puip-puip." 



The food consists mainly of winged insects, and in so far as wo know, 

 the Ijird must be considered beneficial to the agriculturist and forester. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult: Upper parts dark brownish olive, blackish on top of head, many feathers with 

 blackish centers; wings and tail clear brownish black (fuscous), the tertiaries and some 

 of tlie wing-coverts with grayisli or wliitish margins; cliin, throat and belly wliite or 

 yellowish, and often a narrow stripe of this color along the middle of breast; rest of under 

 j)arts olive like the back, most of the feathers witli blackish centers, giving a mottled 

 or streaked appearance; a conspicuous tuft of yellowish downy feathers on the flank; upper 

 mandible dusky; lower mandible yellowish except at tip, where dusky; feet black, iris 

 brown. 



Length 7.10 to 7.90 inches; wing 3.90 to 4.50; tail 2. SO to '.i.'yO; culmcn ..58 to .70. 



