314 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



rest, and either its wings or tail are in constant motion. Where not molested it 

 soon becomes very tame and feai'less. 



Mr. Manly Hardy writes me: "A pair of these birds or their descendants 

 have nested regularly in or near my garden, nsually building' in a maple. 

 These birds know me, and, what is more, I believe remember me from one year 

 to another. They often sat on a dry twig, or on a bean pole near by, and 

 watched me hoe, and suddenly one would dart down and catch a moth or other 

 insect which I had disturbed, flying so close to me that I could distinctly hear 

 the sharp snap of its bill. It then almost invariably returned to the place it 

 darted from to eat its prey. Both birds often came close to the window and 

 watched my family inside." 



Although small and insignificant in size, our Least Flycatcher is by no 

 means a coward, and will boldly attack animals much larger than itself in the 

 defense of its nest and young. I have seen one give chase to an inquisitive red 

 squirrel, which is one of the greatest enemies our small birds have during the 

 nesting season, drive it promptly out of the tree in which its nest was placed, 

 and follow it persistently until it had left the neighborhood. Although quarrel- 

 some enough among themselves, they rarely molest other small birds, and breed 

 in apparent harmony among them. 



Its food consists principally of small insects of various kinds, and occasion- 

 ally of ben-ies; it does no harm, and deserves the fullest protection. Nidification 

 in the southern portions of its breeding range begins usually about the first 

 week in June, and somewhat later fiirther north; at Fort Custer, TMontana, for 

 instance, the single nest I found there contained but slightly incubated eggs on 

 June 25, 1885. 



Apple orchards seem to furnish their favorite nesting sites in New England 

 and central New York; maple, oak, willow, alder, tamarack, spruce, locust, 

 beech, and other trees are also more or less used. The nest, a neat and compact 

 structure, is usually placed in an upriglit fork of a small tree or sajjling, from 

 8 to 25 feet from the ground, and is outwardly composed of shreds of bark, 

 plant fibers, dry grass, weeds, thistle, cottonwood and fern down, pieces of 

 string, feathers, shreds of rope, spider webs, and empty cocoons; the inner lining 

 usually consists of fine plant fibers, especiallv those of the milkweed, horsehair, 

 fine grass, shreds of the inner bark of willow, cottonwood, cedai", and other 

 trees, feathers, thistle, willow, and cottonwood d.)wn, etc. Occasionally a nest 

 is saddled on a horizontal limb of a tree. While out with Dr. William L. Ralph, 

 in the vicinity of Wilmurt, New York, on June 10, 1893, we found a nest of 

 this Flycatcher saddled on a limb of a young spruce, about 10 feet from the 

 gi'ound and 6 inches from the trunk, in a small swanip. The nest contained 

 four nearly fresh eggs, and the female had commenced sitting. She seemed but 

 little concerned at our intrusion, and rem.ained in the vicinity, uttering the usual 

 "che-beck" and now and then a low "twit." 



An average nest measures about 3 inches in oiiter diameter by 2i inches in 

 depth; the inner cup, about 2 inches in diameter by 1.] inches deep. It seems 



