6 Massachusetts Audubon Society 



almost all day looking out of the nest. He came along twice. Once during 

 the day I stood within ten yards of the tree and shot an English sparrow with 

 my 12-guage. The sparrows have been bothering our tree swallows. Fly- 

 catcher was looking out of the hole at the time I shot. She merely dropped 

 into the hole and immediately poked her head out again; seemed not to 

 mind the noise at all. 



June 11th the female arrived at 5:45 A. M. with the usual white 

 feather. He whistled, circled about her, then kept perfectly still while she 

 was at work. When she flew out, he followed after. She passed most of 

 the day looking out. Once she flew out, picked up a large brown hen 

 feather and flew off with it. On the 11th she set for two hours. 



On the 12th a kingbird which had built a short way off made a dive at 

 the flycatcher. They had a knock-down fight; I was afraid they would both 

 get hurt. The kingbird finally flew off. On the 12th she flew out at 5 A. M. 

 and back at 6 A. M. and settled on the nest. 



On the 14th, most of the day on the nest; male very seldom seen. 



On the 15th, male brought a fine worm and fed it to Mrs. At dusk they 

 flew off together. 



18th, setting — off occasionally — on most of the time. 



On the 20th. She pokes her head out just so often. Setting, no doubt. 

 When she flies off, she floats up and down very slowly. House wren build- 

 ing in a box in garage. Every time the wren appears, the male flycatcher 

 makes a dive at her full speed, clicking his beak; wren dashes on to the 

 ground under the bushes. The wren finally gave it up in despair and built 

 in another box on the other side of the garage and raised four young ones. 



The 27th, the flycatchers feeding their young every few minutes. 



The 28th, 29th, 30th and 31st, the same. 



July 1st, again feeding them on mourning cloak butterflies. Rain or 

 shine, they would both arrive with one of those butterflies. They kept that 

 up until the young flew. On the 5th I heard the young chirping in the nest. 



July 7th, in the afternoon male and femae took food to the hole and 

 back to the tree opposite, kept doing that several times; finally encouraged 

 one young one to fly to the tree; then another and the next morning, one 

 more. Have not seen or heard them since. 



P. S. No snakeskin. 



Foundation of nest mostly pine needles, dried brown leaves, grass dried, 

 white hen and pigeon feathers. 



This year, 1918, I hung three snakeskins near the box. Flycatcher used 

 them all for her nest. 



I am sending you also a few notes I have taken from time to time of 

 some of the birds that have visited us in the last year or two. 



