Massachusetts Audubon Society 5 



them are by F. Schuyler Mathews, long known to the nature-loving public 

 as a most accurate, as well as entertaining writer on birds, trees and flowers. 

 The titles are "Field Book of Wild Birds and Their Music," "Field 

 Book of American Trees and Shrubs," and "Field Book of American Wild 

 Flowers." Two others of the set are "Field Book of Insects," by Frank E. 

 Lutz, and "Western Wild Flowers," by Margaret Armstrong. All these are 

 uniform in size and binding, profusely illustrated in color and line drawings, 

 and are authoritative companions for a woodland walk and equally congenial 

 for fireside study. They contain a vast amount of accurate information and 

 yet are small enough to be carried in the side pocket of one's coat. They 

 sell at $2.50 each. 



BIRDS OF A COHASSET ISLAND 



By H. V. Long 



A pair of greatcrested flycatchers arrived early in the morning of May 

 22d, 1914. I first noticed them building on the 27th. They were more 

 than busy building in five different holes in a large martin-house that 

 stands on Whale Meadow, 150 feet from the woods and 100 feet from the 

 ocean. (By the way, a tree swallow was setting in one of the holes.) The 

 male flycatcher would follow the female from the woods, and finally lead 

 her, fly to the top of the house with crest standing upright, shrieking at the 

 top of his lungs; then she would slowly arrive with so much grass, pine 

 needles, feathers, etc., she found it difficult at times to get into the holes. 

 After working continuously for four days, they suddenly discovered on the 

 31st of May, the stump of an old white oak tree with three deserted pigeon 

 woodpeckers' holes that seemed good to them. They chose the middle hole 

 and the old man with his usual dash told everyone where he was going to 

 settle for the summer. The stump stood twenty yards from my garage, ten 

 yards from my dog-house, a brood of chickens under the tree, a guinea-hen 

 setting within ten feet of the tree, a cock guinea making a fearlul racket 

 if anything unusual happened. The crows kept taking the guinea's eggs. 

 We stopped that by having a bright tin cover swinging and hitting the 

 limb just over the nest, and a scarecrow within five yards so natural that it 

 was taken for the owner of the place and spoken to several times. While the 

 flycatchers were building, they did not mind a half a dozen of us standing 

 near watching them. May 31st, June 1st, 2d and 3d, they filled the nest with 

 pine needles, dried grass and leaves; June 4th, packing in fine white feath- 

 ers; June 6th, at 8:30 A. M., the female arrived with a large white feather, 

 the male flying about her flirting with her. She showed up again at 9:30 

 with another white feather and stayed in the nest ten minutes. The male 

 came along at 10:30, watched out till the mate arrived at 10:45 with what 

 looked like glue to paste the feathers down with, stayed in the nest ten min- 

 utes. She came again at 11:30 with feathers, went into the nest, then out 

 again, and flew off with the same feathers. In the P. M. she flew away; the 

 male fluttered over the hole and away after her. June 7th at 9 A. M., fe- 

 male very quiet; she stayed in the nest a half an hour and seemed to have 

 a little glue stuff in her mouth. Male stayed by watching fifteen minutes 

 without moving. Did not see much of them until the 10th. She arrived 

 at 6 A. M. and again at 8:30, each time with white feathers. She passed 



