Sept. 1889.] 



AKD OOLOCrlST. 



137 



nests, I concluded to find some this year or 

 know the reason why. 



Well, I looked and looked and looked, and 

 for a long time I did not find any, bnt finally 

 on May 24, I found a nest some ten feet high, 

 hung in the fork at the end of a sweet gum 

 tree limb, and secured two of the three fresh 

 eggs contained therein (the third egg struck 

 the ground and collapsed.) 



P'rom that time on the difficulty of finding 

 nests seemed to vanish, and I found about two- 

 thirds of all I looked for. 



Complete sets of the first laying were found 

 for about two weeks after the first nest was 

 fcjund, and after that I got several second sets 

 from pairs whose nests had been previously 

 taken. The nests are usually shaped like the 

 bowl of a ladle, but not so deep, woven of 

 weed stems, grass, and catkins, etc., and sus- 

 pended in a fork near the end of a long droop- 

 ing limb. The material used is always old and 

 brown, and catkins or pine straws are usually 

 left hanging from the nest, and loose material 

 is often attached to the side of the nest, mak- 

 ing it look at a casual glance very much like a 

 collection of trash such as often sticks in an 

 old last year's web of the tent caterpillar. 



In about half the nests the bottom is thin 

 enough to see the eggs through, so that one 

 can tell when to take them. The nest however 

 is quite strong, although so thin, and in spite 

 of being so shallow, the eggs will not roll out 

 unless the nest is tipped considerably over. 

 The nests are placed from seven to fifteen feet 

 high, sometimes more, the majority being 

 nine to ten feet in height. About half of them 

 are placed in small dogwoods, the balance be- 

 ing ill post oak, water oak, sweet gum, birch 

 and tulip poplar trees, sweet gum being 

 second favorite to dogwood. 



The set seems to be three, that being the 

 number in ten nests found this year, and no 

 undoubted full set of two having been taken. 



The birds stay in the neighborhood of the 

 nest while building and setting, but not during 

 the four or five days they take to complete a 

 nest. When on the nest they leave it so quietly 

 and unobtrusively on the approach of man as 

 to make it next to impossible to find the nest by 

 fiushing the bird. Careful search in the neigh- 

 borhood of a pair that seem interested or dis- 

 turbed by one's movements seems the best 

 ,and surest way of finding a nest. 



The eggs are quite pretty, with their yellow- 

 ish ground and dark reddish brown spots or 

 blotches thinly scattered over the larger end. 

 The size and number of the spots varies a 



good deal as does the ground color of the eggs, 

 but the latter is always yellower than that of 

 any other small egg I am acquainted 

 with. 



The birds seem equally distributed in high- 

 land and lowland woods, and the same pairs 

 seem to stay in just about the same places each 

 year, at least I know of a number of places 

 where for several years a pair could be found 

 within a few yards of the same spot. 



C. S. Brimley. 



Raleigh, N. C. ' 



[It is not a little remarkable that the eggs of 

 such a common bird as the Acadian Flycatcher 

 sliould have been for so many years incorrectly 

 described. 



Wilson and Audubon evidently confounded 

 them with eggs of the Least Flycatcher (Eni- 

 pidonax miniiuu.s), as they both described them 

 as pure white and unmarked, and stated that 

 the number of eggs laid was from four to six. 



It was not until 1867 that Mr. E. A. Samuels, 

 in his Ornithology and Oijloyy of New Enyland, 

 first described them correctly from specimens 

 furnished to him by me, and taken in Chc^iter 

 County, Pennsylvania. 



It probably breeds more abundantly in the 

 vicinity of I'liiladelphia than anywhere else. 

 In that locality the nest is usually a fragile 

 structure, placed in a sapling, near the end of a 

 twig. The height fi-om the ground varies 

 from five to twenty-five feet, but the nest is 

 usually found at an elevation from five to fif- 

 teen feet. 



The nest varies considerably in its construc- 

 tion, but is most commonly composed of 

 chestnut blossoms, though often ragweed is 

 used. It is sometimes lined with grass, and 

 some of the nests are quite neatly put to- 

 gether, while others have pieces of ragweed 

 hanging down from the sides of the structure, 

 and giving it a slovenly appearance. Fre- 

 quently it is so thin that one can stand 

 beneath it and see the eggs in it through the 

 bottom. 



The favorite situation is in a damp woods, 

 near a stream of water, and sometimes over- 

 hanging it. Occasionally the edge of a wood 

 is chosen for building. 



When the nest is approached the birds 

 will usually betray its location by their 

 noisiness. 



The earliest date at which fresh eggs were 

 found near Philadelphia was May 29, and the 

 latest, June 80, so it is very probable that two 

 broods are raised in a season. 



