200 BULLETIN 17 9, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



"The materials comprising this flycatcher's nest can virtually be 

 called standard. Almost invariably the outside is of weed bark 

 and fiber, and soft, bleached grasses, well bound together. The cup 

 consists of a thin layer of very fine grasses, horse hairs (where avail- 

 able), and the inevitable small bits of vegetable down. Sometimes 

 the rim is decorated with a few small feathers, often lightly and 

 neatly bound. 



"One nest was placed 4 feet up in a dense tangle of thimbleberries 

 at the bottom of a deep draw, one placed 3 feet up in a shittim bush, 

 one in a small swamp maple 3 feet up on an open hillside, and one 

 in a wild rose bush 3 feet up in dense brush, near a trail. Aside from 

 these, all others observed were in ferns, in cleared brushlands or 

 overgrown fields." 



Three California nests and one Arizona nest that I have seen were 

 all placed in upright or slanting forks of willows, securely fastened 

 between the forks or supporting twigs, at heights varying from 4 

 to 6 feet above ground. The materials used were essentially the 

 same as those mentioned above, but considerable willow cotton was 

 mixed with the other material. Dr. R. T. Congdon has sent me 

 some photographs of a nest in a raspberry bush in an orchard, near 

 Wenatchee, Wash. Bendire (1895) mentions a nest, found by Dr. 

 Clinton T. Cooke, near Salem, Oreg., that was 18 feet from the ground 

 in the upright crotch of a slender willow. Nests have also been 

 found in alders and blackberry bushes, sometimes as low as 1 foot 

 from the ground. Nests placed in upright crotches are usually in 

 the shape of inverted cones, and sometimes measure as much as 5 

 inches in height, though usually much less; two that I measured 

 were only about half that height and about 3 inches in outer diameter, 

 and the inner cavity was about 2 inches wide and II/2 inches deep. 

 The nests are generally well and compactly built, but some are rather 

 flimsy. 



Eggs. — The number of eggs to a set varies from two to four and 

 is usually three or four. They are ovate to short-ovate, generally 

 the former, and they have practically no gloss. The ground color 

 is pure dead white, creamy white, pale buffy white, or rarely has a 

 slight pinkish tinge. Some few eggs are immaculate, but almost 

 always they are more or less marked with fine dots, spots, or small 

 blotches, mainly about the larger end. The markings are in various 

 shades of light, reddish brown, such as "vinaceous-rufous" and "fer- 

 ruginous." The measurements of 50 eggs average 17.8 by 13.3 milli- 

 meters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 19.3 by 13.7 

 18.8 by 14.7, 15.5 by 12.7, and 16.3 by 12.4 millimeters. 



Young. — Bendire (1895) says that "only one brood is raised in a 

 season, and incubation lasts about 12 days; the young are fed on 

 insects of various kinds, and remain in the nest about two weeks." 



