OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER. 4II 



determined to claim was circumscribed by the tops of a cluster 

 of tall Virginia junipers or red cedars, and an adjoining elm 

 and decayed cherry-tree. From this sovereign station, in the 

 solitude of a barren and sandy piece of forest adjoining Mount 

 Auburn, she kept a sharp lookout for passing insects, and pur- 

 sued them with great vigor and success as soon as they ap- 

 peared, sometimes chasing them to the ground, and generally 

 resuming her perch with an additional mouthful, which she 

 swallowed at leisure. On descending to her station she occa- 

 sionally quivered her wings and tail, erected her blowsy cap, 

 and kept up a whistling, oftrrepeated, whining call of ^pu 'pUy 

 then varied to ^pii pip, and 'ptp pit, also at times 'ptp 'pip 'pii 

 pip pip pip, pu pii pip, or 7//, '/// Uu, and '/// V//. This 

 shrill, pensive, and quick whistle sometimes dropped almost to 

 a whisper or merely pu. The tone was in fact much like that 

 of the phit phii phii of the Fish Hawk. The male, however, 

 besides this note, at long intervals had a call of 'eh'pheb'ee or 

 'hphebed, almost exactly in the tone of the circular tin whistle, 

 or bird-call, being loud, shrill, and guttural at the commence- 

 ment. The nest of this pair I at length discovered in the 

 horizontal branch of a tall red cedar 40 or 50 feet from the 

 ground. It was formed much in the manner of the Kingbird, 

 externally made of interlaced dead twigs of the cedar, inter- 

 nally of the wiry stolons of the common cinquefoil^ dry grass, 

 and some fragments of branching Lichen or Usnea. It con- 

 tained 3 young and had probably 4 eggs. The eggs had been 

 hatched about the 20th of June, so that the pair had arrived in 

 this vicinity about the close of May. 



The young remained in the nest no less than 23 days, and 

 were fed from the first on beetles and perfect insects, which 

 appeared to have been wholly digested, without any regurgi- 

 tation. Towards the close of this protracted period the young 

 could fly with all the celerity of tfie parents ; and they prob- 

 ably went to and from the nest repeatedly before abandoning 

 it. The male was at this time extremely watchful, and fre- 

 quently followed me from his usual residence, after my paying 

 him a visit, nearly half a mile. These birds, which I watched 



