YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER 175 



paper birches, and mountain ashes, where cranberries, trailing white 

 snow^berry, rare orchids, and an array of slightly emerald mosses 

 carpet the forest floor and cover the crumbling logs." In Northum- 

 berland County, New Brunswick, he and R. C. Harlow found it 

 in the evergreen forest, where they explored "many a little glade, 

 beautified with an array of botanical treasures, such as the twayblade 

 {Listera cordata), small green wood orchis {Hdbenaria clnvellata) ^ 

 and green coralroot {Ghoralhoriza trlfida). In the Adirondack 

 Mountains of New York yellow-bellied flycatchers were present in 

 moss}' glades under the towering firs. Now and then a bird was 

 routed from colonies of tripwood {Viburnum alnifolia)^ over pretty 

 beds of the twinflower {Linnaca horealis), and the red-berried 

 Cornus canadensis.''^ 



In the southern portions of its breeding range, which extends at 

 least as far south as the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania, the 

 yellow-bellied flj'catcher finds congenial summer homes only on the 

 mountains, at elevations of 2,500 feet or more, among the forests of 

 spruces, firs, hemlocks, and tamaracks, and where the damp ground is 

 carpeted with sphagnum moss. 



Nesting. — The earliest accounts of the nesting habits and the eggs 

 of the yellow-bellied flycatcher were based on wrong identification 

 and are known to be quite at variance with present-day knowledge; 

 the nests were said to be placed in the forks of bushes and the eggs 

 to be white and unspotted, whereas we now know that the nests are 

 always placed on or near the ground, or in cavities in the upturned 

 roots of fallen trees, and the eggs are spotted. 



We are, indebted to H. A. Purdie (1878) for the first authentic 

 account of the nesting habits of this species. He and Ruthven 

 Deane were shown this nest in Houlton, Aroostook County, Maine, 

 in 1878, by a collector named James Bradbury. He relates the 

 incident as follows: 



Mr. Bradbury informed us that he found, on June 15, a nest unknown to him 

 with one egg. On the 18th he conducted us to the edge of a wooded swamp, 

 and, pointing to the roots of an upturned tree, said the nest was there. We 

 approached cautiously, and soon saw the structure and then the sitting bird, 

 which appeared to be sunken in a ball of green moss. Our eager eyes were 

 within two feet of her, thus easily Identifying the species, when she darted 

 off; but, to make doubly sure, Mr. Deane shot her. There was no mistake; 

 we at last had a genuine nest and eggs of the Yellow-bellied) Flycatcher. A 

 large dwelling it was for so small and trim a bird. Built in and on to the 

 black mud clinging to the roots, but two feet from the ground, the bulk of 

 the nest was composed of dry moss, while the outside was faced with 

 beautiful fresh green mosses, thickest around the rim or parapet. The home of 

 the Bridge Pewee (Sayoitiis fuscus) was at once suggested. But no mud 

 entered into the actual composition of the nest, thoufih at first we thought so, 

 so much was clinging to it when removed. The lining was mainly of fine 



