FLYCATCHERS 311 



full of nesting material and the other engaged in uttering the 

 strident call. 



I have never seen but one bird with nesting material, and 

 the other was calling or possibly executing a song of triumph, 

 and each accession to the nesting material is invariably greeted 

 by these calls. Occasionally a call of "whit-whit" is uttered 

 in a clear whistling tone. When the nest is being disturbed 

 they fly about in anger, crying " week, week." They frequent 

 rather open woods near water or old orchards along country 

 highways. 



The nest is placed in any convenient hole or cavity in a tree 

 or stub at heights of five to sixty feet. A set taken by the 

 late C. H. Morrell near Pittsfield, Maine, June 25, 1891, was 

 in a hole in the broken down top of a tree at the edge of a 

 large grove and about two hundred yards from the water. 

 The nest was composed of dried leaves and feathers and lacked 

 the usual snake skin. These eggs measure 0.86 x 0.66, 0.90 x 

 0.66, 0.90 X 0.66, 0.87 x 0.66, 0.86 x 0.65, 0.85 x 0.60. 



Nearly all nests of this species contain one to three cast off 

 snake skins, which seem to be used with perhaps the intention 

 of frightening away various intruders. Four to eight, usually 

 five or six eggs are laid, these are creamy buff colored, streaked 

 very heavily as a rule with lines and scrawls of claret, brown, 

 purple and lavender. The markings are generally heaviest on 

 the major half of the egg. The incubation period is fourteen 

 days and the young are ready to leave in about eighteen days 

 after they are hatched. 



The food of the species consists very largely of insects, prac- 

 tically all being caught on the wing. The birds perch on 

 various conspicuous limbs and dead stubs, sailing suddenly 

 downward with wings and tail spread to catch some insect and 

 return again to the perch, erect their crests, flirt their tails 

 and again catch something edible. 



