ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHER 131 



have chosen what they thought was a quiet spot, they did not protit by 

 their experience, or did not mind the disturbance, for they returned 

 the next season and raised a brood of young in the same cavity. 



Mrs. Bailey (1928) writes: "A peculiar nesting site was found by 

 Mr. Ligon at the old Miller ranch on the Pecos— a four-inch exhaust 

 pipe six feet long standing at an angle of about thirty degrees, coming 

 from the cylinder of an abandoned oil engine. The pipe was smeared 

 inside with the black fuel oil softened by the heat and the parent 

 bird which flew from the nest, that was about twelve inches down 

 inside the pipe, to a mesquite bush on a bank above, was so black 

 that Mr. Ligon had difficulty in recognizing it." 



Major Bendire (1895) says: "I am inclined to believe that it not 

 infrequently dispossesses some of the smaller Woodpeckers, like 

 Dryohates scalaris bairdi, of its nesting sites, as I have found its 

 nests on two occasions in newly excavated holes, the fresh chips 

 lying at the base of the tree, showing plainly that they had only 

 recently been removed." 



Mrs. "VVlieelock (1904) writes: "It has been caught nesting in 

 newly formed cavities prepared by both the Texas and Gairdner wood- 

 peckers, and in one case at least I know the woodpeckers were at work 

 on the hole when driven away by usurpers. The battle raged vig- 

 orously at intervals for a whole day. No sooner had the Flycatchers 

 settled the affair and begun to line the nest with rabbit fur, than 

 the woodpeckers returned to the fray ; during the temporary absence 

 of the bandits they scratched out every bit of the unwelcome material, 

 and prepared to reoccupy their home themselves. But as always, 

 the fiercer temper of the Flycatchers prevailed over the brave resist- 

 ance of the woodpeckers, and after repeated defeats they surrendered." 



Eggs. — The number of eggs laid by the ash-throated flycatcher 

 varies from three to seven, but the larger numbers are very rare ; the 

 usual set consists of four or five. The eggs are usually ovate, oc- 

 casionally elliptical-ovate, and they have very little gloss. They are 

 of the Myiarchus type but rather more sparingly marked than those 

 of the Mexican crested flycatcher. The ground color varies from 

 creamy white to pale "cream color," or rarely to a more pinkish shade. 

 Some eggs are rather lightly streaked longitudinally with fine hair 

 lines, some are marked with heavier lines or elongated splashes, and 

 a few are spotted or irregularly blotched with the colors common to 

 other species of the genus, various browns, purples, and drabs. The 

 measurements of 50 eggs average 22.4 by 16.5 millimeters; the eggs 

 showing the four extremes measure 24.4 by 17.3, 2.'5.9 by 17.8 and 20.3 

 by 15.2 millimeters. 



Young. — Major Bendire (1895) writes: "Tlie female, I think, at- 

 tends to the duties of incubation exclusively, which lasts about fifteen 



