176 BULLETIN 17 9, UNITED STATES NATIONAL JVIUSEUM 



black rootlets, with a few pine-needles and grass-stems. The nest gives the 

 following measurements: depth inside, one and one half inches; depth outside, 

 four and a quarter inches; circumference inside, seven and a quarter inches. 



Other nests have been found in upturned roots, notably one found 

 by Major Bendire (1895) in Herkimer County, N. Y., which he 

 described as follows : 



The nest was placed among the upturned roots of a medium-sized spruce tree, 

 to which considerable soil, which was entirely covered with a luxuriant growth 

 of spagnum moss, was still attached. This perpendicular moss and fern cov- 

 ered surface measured about 6 by 8 feet. The nest was sunk into the moss 

 and soil behind, about 14 inches above the ground ; the entrance was partly 

 hidden by some ferns and the growing moss around it, and, taken all in all, 

 it was one of the neatest and most cunningly hidden pieces of bird architecture 

 I have ever seen. I might have walked past a dozen times without noticing 

 it. It contained four eggs, in which incubation was about one-third advanced. 

 The entrance was nearly circular, and measured about li/4 inches in diameter. 

 The inner cup of the nest itself measured about 2 inches in diameter and I14 

 inches in depth. It was composed of flue grasses and a few black, hair-like 

 rootlets and flower stems of mosses. 



Nests of the yellow-bellied flycatcher in upturned roots are the 

 exception rather than the rule ; most of the nests reported have been 

 on or near the ground, on the sides of hummocks or mounds, and 

 well hidden in sphagnum moss or other low vegetation; some have 

 been found under the roots of standing trees or stumps; and W. J. 

 Brown, of West Mount, Quebec, tells me that he once found a nest 

 "on a cliff near a trout stream." He has probably found more nests 

 of this flycatcher than any other man. He says that it is "very 

 abundant" in the County of Matane, Quebec, on the lower St. Law- 

 rence, where it nests in the "thick evergreen woods on the borders 

 of peat and blueberry bogs." He says, in his letter, that he has the 

 records of over 200 nests found in that county, and that he locates 

 10 to 15 nests every j^ear. "The nests, of course, always have moss 

 and are lined with black plant fibres and fine rootlets. A few nests 

 have been lined with fine, bleached grasses only." 



The finest description of a nest of this species that I can find is 

 that of a nest found by Dr. A. K. Fisher near the summit of Slide 

 Mountain in the Catskill Mountains, N. Y., at an altitude of over 

 3,500 feet, quoted by Major Bendire (1895) as follows: 



The nest was built in a cavity scooped in a bed of moss facing the side 

 of a low rock. The cavity had been excavated to a depth of 2V2 inches and 

 was 2 inches across. The opening, but little less than the width of the nest, 

 was 9 inches from the ground, and, partially hidden by overhanging roots, 

 revealed the eggs within only to close inspection. 



The primary foundation of the nest was a layer of brown rootlets; upon 

 this rested the bulk of the structure, consisting of moss matted together with 

 fine-broken weed stalks and other fragmentary material. The inner nest 

 could be removed entire from the outer wall, and was composed of a loosely 



