188 BULLETIN 17 9, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



of a mile, from the open fields where it could be found. Additional 

 descriptions of nests in situ follow : 



S. F. Kathbun writes (MS.) of a nest in New York, on the shore of 

 Lake Ontario, saying, "The other day I found a green crested fly- 

 catcher's nest [ = virescens'\ when at the lake. It was built on the 

 horizontal fork of a maple sapling at a height of 12 feet. It was made 

 of very small hemlock twigs, interwoven with the maple blossoms one 

 sees so plentifully now. That was the body of the nest, and to its 

 under part the birds had attached, by using spiders' web or fila- 

 ments, a loose string of the maple blossoms, until it formed a pen- 

 dulous mass, 8 inches or more long, that came conically to a point ; 

 and this would sway in every breath of wind. The nest was a very 

 beautiful affair." 



W. E. Saunders (1910), describing a nest taken in southwestern 

 Ontario, says, "The nest is composed of fine grasses and rootlets 

 bound together on the outside by what appears to be caterpillar web. 

 The well known habit of this species of making the nest appear like 

 an accidental bunch of drift, by the addition of loose flowei-s of 

 alder, walnut or oak, is varied in this instance by the substitution 

 of a large number of bud scales, apparently of beech. The nest is, 

 as usual, shallow, the cavity measuring % of an inch deep, by 1^4 

 inches wide, while the external measurements are 5 x 2." 



Elliott Coues (1880) was one of the first to make clear the distinc- 

 tion between this species and E. trailli. He quotes from a corre- 

 spondent. Otto Widmann, who had sent him specimen nests of both, 

 and had written, saying, "I have seen many nests of acadicus 

 [= virescens'] in the woods, as they are easily found, hanging in 

 conspicuous places between 12 and 25 feet above ground. They were 

 all made alike, the only difference being that some were more difficult 

 to collect than others, hanging on slender limbs far from the trunk 

 of the tree." Dr. Coues then describes the Acadian nests. These 

 Mr. Widmann had taken in St. Louis County, Mo. He continues: 



The two nests of this species [acacLicusI are strikingly different from the 

 three of trailli in structure, in material, and in position. They appear to liave 

 been taken from long, slender, horizontal branchlets, in the horizontal forks 

 of which they rest. They are shallow nests — in fact, rather saucer-like than 

 cup-shaped, some 3^/^ inches across outside, by less than 2 inches in depth ; 

 the cavity over 2 inches across the brim, by scarcely 1 inch in depth. They are 

 very light, "open-work" structures, so thinly floored that the eggs may have 

 been visible to one looking up from below ; and the walls, though more com- 

 pact, still let daylight through on all sides. These nests, in short, may be 

 compared to light hammocks swung between forks. Each is composed almost 

 entirely of long walnut (Carya) aments, which, drooping in slender sprays 

 from all sides, give a tasteful, airy effect to these pretty structures. There is 

 a slight lining in each case of slender grass-stems and still finer rootlets, loosely 

 interlaid in every direction on the bottom, rather circularly disposed around 



