OIIXITHOLOGIST 



— AND — 



OOLOGIST. 



f l.nn per 

 Aniinm. 



Joseph M. Wade. Editor and rubliuber. 

 EgtabUwliert, Slarcli, 1875. 



Single Copy 

 10 Cents. 



VOL. VII. 



BOSTON, DECEMBER, 1882. 



No. 23. 



Black-crested Flycatcher. 



prove it by sliowinj^ me to tlie nest and 

 letting nie see for myself. Tbej- led me to 

 a live oak in the pasture near the mouth of 

 the canon, and approaching- very carefully 

 we saw the female Qy from the tree. Re- 

 treating a short distance we lay down to 

 watch under another tree, from wliich we 

 could plainly see the the nest. So cau- 

 tious was the bird that we grew very im- 

 patient waiting her return to the nest. She 

 was soon joined by the male, and they 

 would fly about from tree to tree uttering 

 their call-note, at the same time nervously 

 jerking the tail somewhat after the man- 

 ner of the Pewee {Sayornls fuseus). Of- 

 ten they would approach quite close to 

 the tree containing the nest, only to fly 

 away to a moi-e distant tree or bush : and 

 when the female did finally return to the 

 nest she did so by direct flight from one 

 of the most distant trees, — not gradually 

 ajiproaching from tree to tree, as most 

 birds do. This method of retui-ning to the 

 nest I have noticed several times afterward, 

 and consider quite characteristic. Fully 

 satisfied that the nest was one of Phaino- 

 pephi n If ens, I climbed to it, and, as re- 

 ported by the boys, there laj- three beauti- 

 ful but very odd looking eggs. The nest 

 was placed near the end of a horizontal 

 limb about twelve feet from the ground. 

 It was a flat, shallow structure, nearly four 

 inches across the top : the cavity was about 

 two and one-half inches in diameter and 

 less than one inch deep. In composition 

 it was made up of small twigs and pieces 

 of weeds, with blossoms of the live oak 



mixed through it, — most abundantly in the 

 lining ; there were also two small bits of 

 sheep's wool. The material was so loosely 

 woven together as to form a rather fragile 

 nest. The eggs were of an oblong oval 

 shape, tapering only slightly; ground-color 

 a clayej' white, with many small cofTee- 

 colored spots on and around the smaller 

 end, extending with uniformity up the 

 sides to the middle where they became 

 mui-h more numerous, forming a broad 

 band around the larger end which was 

 much more profusely spotted than the 

 smaller. The eggs were perfectly fresh 

 and measured .90x.64, .92x.C2, and .89x.62. 



The next nests were found Hay 8, about 

 a half mile uj) the canon, but were unfin- 

 isiied and were not taken until four daj's 

 later, when two sets, one of three and the 

 other of two eggs, were obtained. Other 

 sets were gotten Maj- 13, 17, and 19, and 

 June 2. Of the seven nests taken by me, 

 four were saddled on horizontal limbs from 

 four to twentj-five feet above the ground, 

 and near the end ; one was placed ujjon 

 three smaller twigs, another upon two, and 

 the seventh was jjlaced securely in a forked 

 branch in the extreme summit of the tree, 

 fully thirty feet from the ground. All of 

 these nests were in live oaks, but Mr. Fred 

 Core}' writes me that he has, this season, 

 found their nests in pepper-trees, blue 

 gums, and elders. 



The various nests examined bj' me agree 

 verj' closely with the one already described. 

 Some are better built, however, and some 

 are even more frail than it, but all are quite 

 shallow, and the cavity in most of them is 

 more nearly the form of an ellipse than a 



