236 BULLETIN 17 9, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



vicinity; he also says that the nests are almost impossible to see on 

 account of their buffy color. This nest is firmly and well made of 

 shredded weed stems and grasses, light buff in color, mixed with fine 

 vegetable fibers and plant down; the rim is plastered with spider 

 webs, and the deep cup is lined with fine grass, cattle hair, and 

 feathers; it measures 2% inches in outside and 1% inches in inside 

 diameter; the inner cup is 2 inches deep, and the entire height of 

 the nest is 3i/^ inches. A nest in the same locality, also in a buck- 

 thorn bush, at 7,000 feet altitude, is shown in a photograph sent to 

 me by Wright M. Pierce (pi. 30). 



Bowles and Decker (1927) say: "Any kind of deciduous bush or 

 small tree seems about equally desirable as a nesting site, for we have 

 found them in the following locations: red willow, birch, wild rose, 

 alder, cottonwood, maple, and one each in fir and western yellow 

 pine, the last two being the only instances we have seen of their using 

 conifers. The nest is almost invariably built in an upright crotch, 

 the only exception being the one in the fir, which was saddled on a 

 forked limb close to the ground. About six feet from the ground 

 is the average height, the extremes being fifteen and two feet." 



In addition to the trees and shrubs mentioned above, nests of the 

 Wright's flycatcher have been found in other species of small pines and 

 spruces, wild plum, manzanita, hazel, dogwood, mountain mahogany, 

 laurel, and serviceberry, and probably others. 



Mrs. Wheelock (1904) tells of the part that the male plays in the 

 construction of the nest: "One sunny day about the tenth of June, 

 you will see him bring a bunch of plant fibre and, placing it in the 

 chosen crotch, jump on it and pack it into place with feet and bill. 

 He has worked hard to get it, tugging with all his little strength 

 to loosen some of it, which is the inner bark of the willows, and 

 chewing it back and forth in his beak to render it fine and pliable. 

 After the first bit has been put in place the female does the shaping 

 and weaving, while the male brings the material." 



Eggs. — ^Wright's flycatcher lays either three or four eggs, appar- 

 ently never more, and perhaps sometimes only two. They are rather 

 short or rounded-ovate, or normal ovate, and they have no gloss. 

 Mr. Howsley says they are much like bobwhites' eggs in shape, 

 "being quite blunt at the larger end receding suddenly to the 

 point." The color is dull white or pale creamy white, and, so far 

 as I can learn, they are never, or very seldom, spotted. The meas- 

 urements of 50 eggs average 17.3 by 13.2 millimeters; the eggs 

 showing the four extremes measure 18.5 by 14.2, 17.0 by 14.5 and 

 15.2 by 12.2 millimeters. 



