22 NESTS AND EGGS OF N. A. BIRDS. 



The ground-color is dull-white or bluish, thickly blotched or 

 freckled with reddish-brown. The measurements of the three spe- 

 cimens preserved are i.oi by .66, .94 by ,68, and .88 by .66. In- 

 cubation had been going on for about ten days, and unfortunately 

 one egg was destroyed in cleaning." 



26. PHAINOPEPLA NITENS. 



BLACK-CBESTED FLYCATCHER. 



A nest containing a complement of three eggs of this spe- 

 cies, collected in California by B. W. Evermann, is now in my pos- 

 session. 



"So far as known, this bird occurs in the mountainous portions 

 of the United States, from Fort Tejon, Cal., to Mexico, and from 

 the Rio Grande to San Diego. "*** This species was first detect, 

 ed within the United States by Colonel McCall, who obtained 

 it in California in 1852. Its habits, as he observed them, partook 

 of those of the true Flycatcher. *"*"-■• A nest of this bird, obtained 

 by Dr. Cooper, on the 27th of April, was built on a horizontal 

 branch of the mezquite {Algarobia), twelve feet from the ground. 

 It was found near Fort Mohave, on the Colorado River. The nest 

 is a very flat structure, four inches in diameter, and less than two 

 in height. The cavity is less than an inch in depth. The nest is 

 made almost entirely of hempen or flax-like fibers of plants, inter- 

 woven with fine grasses, stems of plants, and stalks of a larger size. 

 It is lined with a soft downy substance of a vegetable character. 



The eggs, two in nuhiber, are of an oblong-oval shape, nearly 

 equal at either end, and with a ground-color of a light slate, tinged 

 with a yellowish-green-. They are marked and blotched equally 

 over the entire egg, with spots and blotches of various lines, from 

 a light, faint, obscure purple to deeper tints of purplish-brown, 

 even to black. It is a very marked egg, and unique in its appear- 

 ance. They measure .90 by .60 of an inch." — Baird, Brewer 

 AND Ridgway's N. a. Birds, vol. i, pp. 406, 407. 



