ACADIAN FLYCATCHER 189 



the brim. These specimens were taken June 13 and 18, 1879, in hickory woods, 

 at altitudes of 10 and 15 feet. 



Natural historians, in their thoughtlessness, are apt to speak 

 slightingly of the Acadian's nest-building ability; but they produce 

 no evidence of inadequacy; and, when attention is given to the 

 matter, her nest will be seen to be, as such products commonly are, 

 a perfect piece of artistry, utterly sufHcient to her need. As for 

 durability. Prof. Brooks writes (MS.), "The nests aye highly decep- 

 tive in appearance. They are so loosely woven as frequently to 

 make possible the counting of the eggs from below. Despite this 

 apparent looseness, the nests are resistant to winter storms, and it 

 is not unusual to find solidly suspended nests in early spring, before 

 the leaves have appeared. I saw one nest which lasted through two 

 winters, being still fairly firm at the beginning of the third season." 



The material that, caught in caterpillar thread, hangs from the 

 nests is commonly, as has been said, small faded flowers or bud 

 scales; it may be bits of bark, the dust of wood-borers, or whatever 

 litter sifts through the woods. 



In the South, Spanish moss is a frequently used nesting material. 

 Stockard (1905), writing of conditions in Mississippi, says, "Two 

 nests taken in Adams County were very interestingly constructed, 

 being composed entirely of Spanish moss woven between the prongs 

 of small elm forks. A surplus of moss was used so that long beards 

 or streamers of it hung down for a length of eighteen inches below 

 the actual nest. This arrangement gave the exact appearance of 

 ordinary bunches of this gray moss hanging from the branches. 

 Both nests would have been passed unnoticed but for the fact that 

 the birds flew off as I passed under the limbs." 



Williams (1928) says of a nest collected in Leon County, Fla., 

 that it was composed "entirely of Spanish moss and imbedded in a 

 cluster of that epiphyte." 



I have before me the records of 55 nests, 49 collected in the North, 

 6 in the South. Nearly all were placed in the lower branches of 

 large trees; a few in saplings, shrubs, and bushes. Of 4'1 northern 

 nests, 20 were in beech trees, 8 in maples, 3 in hemlocks, 2 in hickories, 

 2 in white oaks; and 1 each in elm, locust, linden, walnut, elder, wild 

 apple, red haw, hazel, and witch-hazel. Of the 6 southern nests, 2 

 were hung in cypresses, 2 in water oaks, and 1 each in elm and sweet 

 gum. In southwestern Pennsylvania the nest is commonly placed in 

 a beech; but in South Carolina Wayne (1910) has found it to 

 be "invariably built in the forks of a dogwood tree {Comus ftoriday; 

 and Brimley (1889), writing of nests found in the vicinity of 

 Raleigh, N. C, says that "about half of them are placed in small 

 dogwoods, the balance being in post oak, water oak, sweet gum, 



