KORTHERN CRESTED FLYCATCHER 109 



"^Vhen open at the top or at the end of a horizontal branch, the 

 cavities were sometimes veiy deep, even 2 or 3 feet, but such cavities 

 were filled with trash and nesting material so that the nest was 

 usual h' not more than a foot or so from the opening. The only 

 nest that was not in an apple tree was in a dead stub, about 7 feet 

 high and open at the top, in some swampy woods. The orchard 

 nests ranged from 6 to 11 feet above the ground, as such old apple 

 trees are not large. We found that these flycatchers formed strong 

 attachments to their homes and returned to the same orchards year 

 after year; one pair was found nesting in the very same cavity 

 that it had occupied nine years earlier ; I had not visited the locality 

 in the meantime, but I like to think that it may have been occupied 

 during at least some of the intervening years. 



Dr. Dickey tells me that, in West Virginia, "a small weather-worn 

 knot hole is a favorite breeding site, while abandoned orifices of 

 squirrels are used too." M. G. Vaiden reports from Mississippi 

 that he has found nests in various situations : in an old woodpeckers' 

 hole in an immense chinaberry tree; in a yard on a farm, about 50 

 feet from the ground ; in a natural cavity in a black locust, 28 feet up 

 in the trunk; in a natural cavity in an ashleaf maple; and in "tall 

 cypress trees in the brakes of the territory." 



Bendire (1895) says that natural cavities are preferred, "where 

 such are obtainable, even should these be much more extensive than 

 are really needed, as instances are known where openings in hollow 

 limbs fully 6 feet deep have been filled up with rubbish to within 

 18 inches of the top before the nest proper was begun. Both sexes 

 assist in nest -building, and it takes sometimes fully two weeks before 

 their task is completed. The finishing and lining of the nest is 

 generally completed by the female." 



In addition to the few trees named above, nests of the crested 

 flycatcher have been found in natural cavities or woodpecker holes 

 in various oaks, ashes, maples, birches, pines, and cedars, as well as 

 in beech, chestnut, tulip, pear, tupelo, sycamore, cottonwood, and 

 locust trees, and probably in others. Dead stubs in the woods have 

 probably been old favorites, and even woodpecker holes in telegraph 

 poles have been used. Nests have been reported at various heights 

 above ground, from 3 feet in low stumps or prostrate trees up to 

 70 feet in large trees; but probably most of the nests are located 

 below 15 or 20 feet. 



Bendire (1895) says: "The nesting cavities selected are ordi- 

 narily from 18 to 30 inches deep and others are considerably deeper, 

 while occasionally one is quite shallow. The imier cup of the nest 

 varies from 2% to 3^2 inches in diameter and from li^ to 2 inches 

 in depth." Dr. Dickoy (MS.) writes: "Nests that I have examined 



