206 BULLETIN 179, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



vantage to another. This is the Alder Flycatcher in migration- 

 quiet, watchful and discreet." 



Nestimg. — Mr. Farley (1901a) gives a very good account of the 

 nesting habits of the alder flycatcher in eastern Massachusetts, as 

 follows : 



So far as I have observed, it nests invariably in a bush, selecting most often 

 a wild rose, or clump of rose shoots or sprays — usually Rosa Carolina L. 



[Footnote: I recall finding a nest once in a small shrub of meadow sweet 

 (Spiraea salicifoUa L.)]. The nest is often overshadowed by the alders which 

 are scattered here and there in clumps in the bushy meadow. But it is as 

 likely to be placed in unshaded shrubbery in the full glare of the sun. When 

 in the open, it is more or less hid, however, by the mingled mass of wild roses, 

 sweet gale, and other bushes rising breast-high all about it. It is often in the 

 thickest jungle of such growth where tall, waving ferns vie in height with 

 the predominating tangle of rose bushes that the Alder Flycatcher hides away 

 its nest. 



The height of the nest from the ground is from two to four feet. It is 

 placed rather loosely, at times even flimsily, in an upright crotch or rather 

 fork, or else between independent twigs that furnish a similar support. In 

 either case the nest is suspended in a characteristic and peculiar way. I have 

 never seen it set snugly dovpn into a crotch after the manner of the Least Fly- 

 catcher. It is, instead, supported between twigs or prongs. It gets its chief 

 support, as a rule, from two main shoots which often grow from the ground 

 independently of each other, but which will be sometimes members of one 

 bush, forming in this case a long crotch or fork. * * * 



A beautiful nest that I found in 1895 in Essex County merits description 

 because, in addition to being the handsomest structure of the Alder Flycatcher 

 that I have seen, it is typical (although in a somewhat exaggerated way) of 

 the general architecture of the species. The nest was three and one-half feet 

 from the ground in a clump of the swamp rose (Rosa Carolina L.), being one 

 foot below the top of the bush. The nest is large, representing the extreme 

 in size. Its inside depth is two and one-eighth inches ; outside depth, three 

 inches; outside diameter, three and three-eighths inches; inside diameter, 

 one-half inch less. It is composed of fine grasses and strips of Asclepias, the 

 latter woven into the body of the structure as well as wound about the 

 outside and over the rim. It is deeply-cupped and thickly-walled, with rim slightly 

 curving over and in on one side. The lining is composed of the finest of 

 hair-like, dried, yellow grasses. A pretty effect is obtained by the use of a 

 very delicate grass which, projecting above the rim, shows the finest of 

 tassels. * * * 



This nest has in common with all others that I have seen the usual, charac- 

 teristic, loose, unfinished, even ragged, appearance outside and below. But 

 the long grasses and especially the fibrous strips of Asclepias hang or string 

 down in the present case in unusual quantity and length. Much of this 

 reaches down six inches below the nest. Some of it extends down for one 

 foot. A studied air of disarrangement, of negligence, of elegant confusion, is 

 thus secured. The decorative effect is heightened by the silvery Asclepias, 

 which, in addition to entering so largely into the body of the nest, causing it 

 to shine flax-like, streams down and out therefrom in what might be termed 

 a fibrous cascade. In greatest possible contrast to the disarranged, silvery-gray 

 exterior is the round, deeply-hollowed interior with its exquisite yellow lining 

 of finest grass. The excessive use of Asclepias in this nest is exceptional. 



