Professional and Amateur. 113 



We have many flycatchers, some as large as the 

 kingbird and fully as prominent ; for instance, the 

 great-crested, which is almost constantly with us and 

 has some habits unlike its nearest relations. It 

 builds its nest in a hole in a tree instead of on the 

 branches, and drowns the songs of other birds by 

 its unending cacophonous fretting. A bird of spirit 

 and of action, but so tiresome that before the sum- 

 mer is over we vote it a nuisance. These birds 

 never miss building in the old apple-trees in the 

 lane, but this year the pair that reoccupied last 

 year's nest could not find a snake-skin, which is 

 supposed to be a sine qua non with them. I was 

 sorry, for it argued a scarcity of snakes and there- 

 fore another step towards denaturalizing the coun- 

 try round about. They did have a bit of narrow 

 ribbon, and I wondered if they took this as a sub- 

 stitute. 



The olive-sided flycatcher merely passes through 

 New Jersey on its way north, and again, in autumn, 

 going southward ; but in Northern New England it 

 is very conspicuous. Thoreau makes frequent refer- 

 ence to it, and calls it, because of the noise it makes, 

 pe-pe. Mr. Cram informs me that in his neighbor- 

 hood the kingbird and the great-crested are very like 

 in habits. Certainly, he says, they are equally quar- 

 relsome and fearless, and adds, '' I always associate 

 them with hot weather and pine clearings and that 

 peculiar aromatic odor of drying white pine tops 

 unlike anything else. These birds spend much of 

 their time perched on the tops of dead trees, and 



h 10* 



