120 BULLETIN 17 9, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



boys in our town who made frequent expeditions to the country. One 

 day, while exploring a farmer's orchard, we came to an apple tree 

 worthy of investigation because of a cavity in a main limb. It was 

 my turn to climb up; and when I reached the level of the hole and 

 peered into it, I could see the head and coils of a large snake. With 

 the aid of a stick the snake was soon dislodged and was killed by 

 the boys on the ground as soon as it had made the descent. A huge 

 enlargement of its body invited further investigation. We opened 

 it and found an adult great crested flycatcher that had been recently 

 swallowed whole. The bird had been caught at her own nest. I 

 cannot vouch for the identification of the snake. As I recall it now, 

 we called it a bullsnake." 



Winter. — Although stragglers have been observed in late fall and 

 winter in South Carolina and even New England, most of the 

 northern crested flycatchers leave their more northern summer homes 

 in late September or early October and spend the winter in Mexico, 

 Central America, and northern South America. Dickey and van 

 Rossem (1938) sa}'- that, in El Salvador, it is "fairly common in fall, 

 winter, and spring on the coastal plain and in the foothills and 

 mountains up to 3,500 feet. This species is most numerous in open 

 woods in the lower foothills and is least so along the coast. Extreme 

 dates of arrival and departure are October 25 and April 13." 



DISTKIBUTION 



Range. — The United States and southern Canada west to the Great 

 Plains. Winters south to Colombia. 



Breeding range. — The crested flycatcher breeds north to southern 

 Manitoba (Carberry, Portage la Prairie, and Winnipeg) ; southern 

 Ontario (Gargantua, Lake Nipissing, and Ottawa) ; southern Quebec 

 (Montreal and Quebec City) ; and central Maine (Houlton and Pat- 

 ten). The eastern boundary of the breeding range is the Atlantic 

 seaboard south to Florida (St. Augustine, New Smyrna, and Fla- 

 mingo). South to Florida (Flamingo, Cape Sable, Seven Oaks, and 

 Pensacola) ; southern Mississippi (Bay St. Louis) ; southern Louisi- 

 ana (New Orleans, Thibodaux, and Grand Coteau) ; and southeastern 

 Texas (Plouston, Victoria, and Kerrville). West to eastern Texas 

 (Kerrville, San Angelo, and Commerce) ; Oklahoma (Wichita Moun- 

 tains Refuge, Minco, and Arnett) ; central Kansas (Pratt, Hays, and 

 Stockton) ; eastern Nebraska (Hastings and West Point) ; eastern 

 South Dakota (Yankton, Sioux Falls, and Faulkton) ; eastern North 

 Dakota (Wahpeton, Fargo, Grafton, and the Turtle Mountains) ; 

 and southwestern Manitoba (Treesbank and Carberry). 



Winter range. — The winter range extends north to, probably rarely, 

 southern Texas (Brownsville) ; and southern Florida (Punta Rassa, 

 Fort Myers, and Fort Lauderdale). East to southeastern Florida 



