ACADIAN FLYCATCHER 187 



"As the female repeatedly flew in I thought once or twice that I 

 detected material in her bill, but, standing in shadow and looking 

 upward toward a bright sky, I could not be sure. Generally I could 

 see nothing. Seated within her nest, the bird kept reaching over the 

 rim and seemed to be engaged in drawing strands of material (silk?) 

 over the rim of the nest inward. This was the oft-repeated and, in- 

 deed, the chief action of the bird at the nest. Once or twice she 

 remained for a minute or more, but ordinarily her visits were of 

 shorter duration." 



When the building is done, threads of silk with the entangled 

 blossoms are commonly left, streaming from the rim of the nest. 

 The appearance from without is lacking in symmetry ; it is altogether 

 casual; and the nest on that account must commonly be overlooked 

 by marauders. It would be an interesting matter of inquiry what the 

 value of wild silk as nest-building material may be to such birds as 

 the wood pewee, the hummingbirds, the gnatcatcher, and the vireos. 



I collected the nest about which I have spoken, after the brood had 

 flown from it, and took it to Dr. O. E. Jennings, botanist of the 

 Carnegie Museum, asking him to be good enough to analyse the 

 materials. This he has generously done and has given me the follow- 

 ing report: 



"The main body of the nest is composed of a tangled mass of very 

 slender herbaceous stems and branches mostly averaging between i/^ 

 and 1 mm. in diameter. Many of these are specked with decay fungi 

 and were probably dead when gathered. It is noteworthy that no 

 grass leaves were used in the nest. 



"There are a few strips of grapevine bark, but these were apparently 

 of not much importance and are not much interwoven. There are, 

 however, a few coiled grapevine tendrils (small ones) which by their 

 coiled and twisted character help to hold the loose nest together. The 

 main binding material in the nest consists of cobwebs to which the 

 various small twigs and also bits of dead leaves of various kinds 

 are sticking. The small slender twigs making up most of the frame- 

 work evidently come from woodland herbs rather than those growing 

 out in the open, the woodland habitat also being indicated by the 

 thin nature of the bits of leaves. It seems rather likely that such 

 woodland plants as sweet cicely and honewort are the source of this 

 material, and it is also noteworthy that no grass leaves are involved, 

 grasses being scarce in shaded woodlands." 



Here is evidence that the bird during nesting season confines itself 

 to a narrow territory. And yet, somewhat at variance with this, is a 

 report from Prof. Maurice Brooks (MS.), of Morgantown, W. Va., 

 who writes of finding nests woven of poverty grass {Danfh-onm 

 spicata) , a material that must have been brought more than a quarter 



