ALDER FLYCATCHER 207 



The above description is fairly typical, although somewhat extreme 

 as to the amount of loose material in the lower exterior, of all the 

 nests that I have seen .or read about in northern New England and 

 eastern Canada. In addition to the shrubs mentioned above, nests 

 have been found in alders, willows, swamp azaleas, elders, dogwoods, 

 hazels, a birch sapling, spicewood, wild raspberry, gooseberry, and 

 wild currant bushes. Probably any small tree, bush, or bit of rank 

 herbage in a suitable locality might be used. F. H. Kennard men- 

 tions in his notes a nest that he found in northern New Hampshire 

 that was only one foot from the ground in a clump of royal fern 

 {Osmunda regalis). The heights from the ground range from this 

 extremely low level up to six feet, but three or four feet are the 

 commonest heights. F. A. E. Starr tells me of a nest he found near 

 Toronto, Ontario, that was in a clump of wild raspberry bushes by a 

 roadside. 



Nests found in the mountain regions of Pennsylvania and West 

 Virginia seem to be similarly located and made of similar materials. 

 An extra large nest, found by Dr. Samuel S. Dickey in Warren 

 County, Pa., measured 4i/^ inches in outside diameter and 5 inches 

 in height, the inner cavity being 2 inches wide and II/2 inches deep. 

 Those that I have measured have varied from 3i/^ to 4 inches in out- 

 side diameter, and the body of the nest, exclusive of the loose ends, 

 was not much more than 2 inches in height. Dr. Dickey (MS.) says 

 of his nest: "The foundation consisted of a loose weave of stems of 

 yellow marsh grass {G alamagrostis canadensis), fine panicles of 

 grass, fine weed stems, bark strips of weeds, and gray mats of spider 

 cocoons. It was lined with fine, dusky-colored weed stems, fine yellow 

 grass panicles and several brown needles of the white pine {Pinus 

 strobus) ." 



P. M. Silloway (1923) says that in the western Adirondack forest 

 the alder flycatcher "commonly finds a site in an upright crotch of a 

 bush or sapling, but in some instances it saddles its nest on a hori- 

 zontal branch from twenty to thirty feet from the ground." Harold 

 M. Holland writes to me from Illinois that "whereas willow and like 

 growths may offer suitable nesting places along watercourses, on the 

 'prairie' it almost invariably nests in the osage-orange hedgerows. 

 Years ago these hedges lined country roads and formed farm boun- 

 daries very extensively, and flycatchers were correspondingly plenti- 

 ful." But the hedges are gradually disappearing. A. Dawes DuBois 

 tells me that he once found a nest, in Jersey County, 111., that was 8 

 feet from the ground "in a small ash tree in an orchard." He sends 

 me the description of another nest, found on waste land north of 

 Springfield, 111., that was "composed chiefly of soft plant fibers and 

 thin shreds from the outside of weed stalks, with several soft 



