FORK-TAILED FLYCATCHER 77 



of our southern border in Mississippi, Kentucky, New Jersey, Massa- 

 chusetts, and Maine. Audubon (1840) gives the earliest records of 

 its occurrence within the United States in the following words: 



In the end of June, 1832, I observed one of these birds a few miles below the 

 city of Camden, New Jersey, flying over a meadow in pursuit of insects, after 

 which it alighted on the top of a small detached tree, where I followed it and 

 succeeded in obtaining it. * * * 



Many years ago, while residing at Henderson in Kentucky, I had one of these 

 birds brought to me which had been caught by the hand, and was nearly putrid 

 when I got it. The person who presented it to me had caught it in the Barrens, 

 ten or twelve miles from Henderson, late in October, after a succession of white 

 frosts, and had kept it more than a week. While near the city of Natchez, in 

 the state of Mississippi, in August 1822, I saw two others high in the air, twitter- 

 ing in the manner of the King Bird ; but they disappeared to the westward, and I 

 was unable to see them again. 



The other records are to be found in the paragraph on distribution 

 following this account. 



Alexander F. Skutch writes to me that "this is a bird of the drier 

 and more open parts of Central America. I have seen it only at 

 Balboa, Canal Zone ; Buenos Aires de Osa, Costa Rica ; and a few in 

 the neighborhood of Cartago, Costa Rica, in open pasture-land at an 

 altitude of 4500 feet, where it is said to breed. Perhaps the most 

 conspicuous bird on the sdbanas or prairies about Buenos Aires was 

 the fork-tailed flycatcher. These might be found, in small, scattered 

 flocks, wherever low bushes, growing amidst the grass, afforded them 

 perches from a foot to a yard above the ground. On such low perches 

 they rested quietly through the day, ever alert to dart forth and snatch 

 up some insect whose movement attracted their keen sight." 



W. H. Hudson (1920) says that in Argentina the fork-tailed fly- 

 catcher "is migratory, and arrives, already mated, at Buenos Ayres at 

 the end of September, and takes its departure at the end of February 

 in families — old and 3^oung birds together. * * * it prefers open 

 situations with scattered trees and bushes ; and is also partial to marshy 

 grounds, where it takes up position on an elevated stalk to watch for 

 insects." 



Nesting. — According to Hudson (1920), "the nest is not deep, but is 

 much more elaborately constructed than is usual with the Tyrants. 

 Soft materials are preferred, and in many cases the nests are composed 

 almost exclusively of wool. The inside is cup-shaped, with a flat 

 bottom, and is smooth and hard, the thistle-down with which it is 

 lined being cemented with gum." 



Evidently these flycatchers are favorite hosts for the Argentine 

 cowbird, for he writes: "One December I collected ten nests of the 

 Scissor-tail {Milvulus tyrannus) from my trees: they contained a 

 total of forty-seven eggs, twelve of the Scissor-tails and thirty-five of 

 the Cow-birds. It is worthy of remark that the Milvulus breeds in 



