WESTERN FLYCATCHER 249 



in a niche 18 feet above the ground in the side of an oak trunk near 

 the Faculty Club. In another instance, the nest was built in a fern 

 basket on a porch at 2243 (College Avenue. This site was but five 

 feet from a frequently used door, and it was only two feet from the 

 porch-light which shone into the nest on frequent occasions in the 

 evening without appearing to disturb the birds. On May 17 (1908) 

 this nest held four eggs, and two young were successfully reared. In 

 1909, the same site was chosen, but the nest was subsequently deserted." 



Nesting sites on beams in unoccupied buildings are often used year 

 after year, until a whole row of old nests may sometimes be seen. 

 Nests built in trees may be placed on any suitable support, in a natural 

 crevice, or behind loose slabs of bark, such as occur on redwoods, 

 alders, or eucalyptus trees. These birds are not only very much 

 attached to favorite nesting sites, especially in buildings, but are 

 sometimes very persistent in their attempts to raise a brood. Joseph 

 Mailliard (1881) tells of a pair that nested every year in the shed 

 covering his tanks. One season he took five nests with eggs from 

 this same pair of birds in the same shed. The first nest was taken on 

 May 15 and the last on July 6. Thus five nests were built and 21 eggs 

 were laid by this pair of birds in a little over two months. 



Denis Gale says in his notes that he has known one pair of these 

 birds to use the same nest for three years in succession and another 

 pair for four, repairing the old nest or partially rebuilding it. 



Eggs. — Three or four eggs are ordinarily laid by the western fly- 

 catcher, usually four and very rarely five. The eggs vary from 

 ovate to short-ovate or even rounded-ovate. They are practically 

 lusterless, with a dull white or creamy white ground color. The 

 markings consist of spots or small blotches, usually concentrated 

 about the larger end, but on some eggs there are minute dots or 

 small spots scattered more or less evenly over the whole surface. 

 These markings are in shades of bright reddish brown, "cinnamon- 

 rufous," or the lighter shades of "butf-pink" ; occasionally there are 

 a few faint spots of lavender. Bendire (1895) says that "the spots 

 are, as a rule, coarser and heavier" than on the eggs of the yellow- 

 bellied flycatcher. The measurements of 50 eggs average 16.8 by 

 13.1 millimeters ; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 18.8 by 

 13.7, 18.0 by 14.2, and 15.2 by 12.5 millimeters. 



Toimg. — The period of incubation is said to be 12 days. Whether 

 botli sexes incubate does not seem to be known, but both parents 

 assist in the feeding of the young and probably in brooding them 

 also. Professor Beal (1910) says that the food of the young shows 

 no marked difference from that of the adults. "The young in one 

 nest were fed 2-1 times in an hour. Owing to the nest's location the 

 number of nestlings was not ascertained. If there were four, as is 



