110 BULLETIN 17 9, UNITED STATES NATIONAL RIUSEUM 



consisted of loose foundations of leaves of such deciduous trees as 

 sugar maple, white oak, scarlet oak, walnut, and apple. They were 

 intermixed with petioles, skeleton leaves, animal hair (from dog, 

 cat, cattle, pig, rabbit, and horse), chicken and other poultry feathers, 

 bark fibers from trees, hemp, rootlets, pieces of cord string, and 

 strands from ropes." 



Many and varied are the materials used in the construction of 

 the nest and the filling in of the cavity, to which the size of the nest 

 must conform. 



Prof. Maurice Brooks writes to me: "The crested flycatchers that 

 have built in a box erected for them, near French Creek, W. Va., 

 have given striking evidence of a sense for color. At this time we are 

 keeping on the farm chickens of two breeds. Barred Plymouth 

 Rocks and Rhode Island Reds. The flycatchers have utilized feathers 

 in constructing the nest. On the outside of the nest we counted 17 

 Plymouth Rock feathers, but not a single Rhode Island Red feather. 

 On the other hand, the lining of the nest was composed almost entirely 

 of Rhode Island Red feathers, not a single gray feather from the 

 Plymouth Rocks being used. The nest contained three pieces of snake- 

 skin, evidently that of the pilot blacksnake {Elaphe ohsoleta)^ 



In addition to the materials mentioned above, the following have 

 been found in the nests of this flycatcher : Large quantities of grass 

 and pine needles, a few small twigs, feathers of grouse, owls, and 

 hawks, a rabbit's tail, woodchuck fur, seed pods, bits of bark, cloth, 

 and paper, pieces of onion skin. Cellophane, paraffined or oiled paper, 

 bits of eggshells, and pieces of horse manure. 



I have left until the last the consideration of the use of the cast- 

 off skins of snakes about which so much has been written. Almost 

 everyone who has written anything about the crested flycatcher has 

 touched on this subject. There can be no doubt that such old skins 

 are often, perhaps generally, found in the nests, though they are 

 usually found in small pieces and are often entirely lacking or re- 

 placed with something else of similar texture. Fully 25 percent of 

 the nests that I have personally examined have contained no pieces of 

 snakeskin or any similar material. Mr. Vaiden tells me that "from a 

 total of 37 nests examined in the past 30 years, snake skins have 

 been found in only 14." On the other hand, Prof. Brooks (MS.) says 

 of one nest : "The birds had evidently been unable to find the pieces 

 of snakeskin, which they are accustomed to place in their nests, but 

 in this case they had substituted three pieces of the yellowed outside 

 skin of an onion. This is the only nest I have ever seen that did 

 not contain at least one piece of snakeskin. I have identified the 

 sloughed skin of the pilot blacksnake {Elafhe ohsohta), the black 



