190 BULLETIN 179, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



birch and tulip poplar trees, sweet gum being second favorite to 

 dogwood." 



In height the average of 44 nests was IOI/2 feet. Thirty-three were 

 between 8 and 20 feet ; one was as low at 3I/2 feet ; two were as high 

 as 25. Twelve overhung water — a flowing stream or a cypress swamp. 



Eggs. — [Author's note: The Acadian flycatcher lays two to four 

 eggs to a set, usually three. They vary from ovate, the commonest 

 shape, to elliptical-ovate and have very little or no gloss. The ground 

 color varies from creamy white to buffy white. They are sparingly 

 marked with small spots or minute dots, generally mainly near the 

 larger end of the ^^'g., of different shades of brown, such as "liver 

 brown" or "ferruginous," the darker colors being commoner. The 

 measurements of 50 eggs average 18.4 by 13.8 millimeters; the eggs 

 showing the four extremes measure 19.8 by 14.5, 20.1 by 14.7, 16.5 by 

 13.7, and 16.8 by 12.7 millimeters.] 



Yoimg. — The period of incubation, as observed by Harold M. 

 Holland (MS.), of Galesburg, 111., is 13 days. 



Butler (1897) makes record, fide V. H. Barnett, of a young bird 

 that could not fly well, shot in Warren County, Ind., on September 

 25. This, of course, is abnormally late. 



Plumages. — [Author's note: The small, nearly naked nestling is 

 sparingly clothed in whitish down, which adheres to the tips of the 

 Juvenal plumage. A half -grown nestling before me has a "light 

 brownish olive" crown, with pale buff edgings; the back and rump 

 are similar, with the widest edgings on the rump; the median and 

 greater wing coverts on the half -grown wings are broadly tipped with 

 "light ochraceous-buff " ; the secondaries are narrowly and the ter- 

 tials more broadly edged with the same color ; the chin is white, the 

 chest tinged with olive-gray, and the abdomen is white to yellowish 

 white. In an older bird, taken in August and fully grown, the edg- 

 ings on the upper parts have worn away and the plumage has 

 a greener cast; the under parts are all white, except for an obscure 

 olive-gray pectoral band. 



Apparently a partial postjuvenal molt of the body plumage, main- 

 ly after the birds have left for the south, produces a first winter 

 plumage which is not very different from the above. Adults probably 

 have a complete postnuptial molt after migrating, but, for lack of 

 winter specimens, we do not know what molts take place during the 

 winter and early spring.] 



Food. — Prof. Beal (1912), of the Biological Survey, examined the 

 contents of the stomachs of 100 Acadian flycatchers "collected in 14 

 States, the District of Columbia, and Canada, and from April to 

 October," and found "97.05 per cent of animal matter and 2.95 per 

 cent of vegetable." His more detailed report is as follows: 



