Traill's Flycatcher. 107 



you hear their gentle "queet," it means that you are 

 within a small radius of a home, and the owners are 

 voicing their distress at your invasion of their limits. 



Nests of Traill's flycatcher are seldom found in this 

 locality before the second week in June. I have repeat- 

 edly looked for them earlier without success. Hedges 

 afford the most favored sites, and the distance from the 

 ground varies between three and ten feet. Hazel, plum, 

 and alder bushes are common resorts, and among such 

 bushes the nest is generally placed in an upright crotch. 

 On July 30, 1894, I found a nest four feet from the 

 ground in a plum bush. It was built on a horizontal 

 branch near the extremity, where twigs branching on 

 either side afforded a firm base. In hedges the nest is 

 almost invariably set on a horizontal limb and bound by 

 vegetable fibers to one or more upright twigs. I have 

 been unable to find any mention of the fact that nests of 

 this flycatcher are thus situated upon horizontal branches 

 in hedges. I never found a nest fastened around the 

 branch on which it was placed. Frequently nests are 

 constructed on obliquely ascending limbs where forking 

 twigs furnish points of attachment, a site very similar to 

 nesting sites of the goldfinch. The highest nests in 

 hedges are usually built in regular crotches. Most of the 

 nests of this species are found between five and eight 

 feet from the ground. 



There is little variation in the construction of the nests. 

 The materials used hereabouts are grayish vegetable fibers, 

 dried stems of small weeds, feathers, and pieces of gossa- 

 mer. The materials are carried by the builders in large 

 mouthfuls, and hence the fibrous dwelling is not long in 

 process of fabrication. Externally, the structure has no 

 especial appearance of neatness, and resembles the work 

 of the goldfinch and the yellow warbler, though it lacks 

 the compactness of the nests of the species mentioned and 

 averages rather larger in its dimensions. The cavity is 

 more smoothly finished than the exterior, usually with 

 fine dried grass and a few downy feathers. The nests 

 range from two and a half to three inches in diameter 

 externally, and from two and a half to two and a fourth 



