140 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 15-No. 9 



woods and came on a possum sitting' in the 

 fork of a black jack some twenty -live feet up. 

 Needing his skin and not wishing to make a 

 sieve of it I manceuvred around until his 

 body was protected by the fork, leaving only 

 his head visible. After shooting at him four 

 times with tens, sixes and B. B."s, climbing for 

 him, knocking him out, catching him on the 

 ground and killing him, I discovered what I 

 thought before, that I had secured a large pos- 

 sum, though poor. On my way home I met 

 two men going fishing who exclaimed at the 

 large size of my game. I handed it to one 

 of them asking what he thought it weighed. 

 He "hefted" it and remarked that "that 

 possum '11 dress eight pounds." I expressed 

 surprise as my estimate of its weight was 

 about seven pounds, gross. He handed it to 

 the other man who likewise gave its weight at 

 eight pounds when dressed. I met another old 

 fellow a little further on, a man who knows 

 what's what in possum lore. He also con- 

 sidered it a big one but gave no specified 

 weight. People here who don't use scales con- 

 sider a possum should weigh six or eight or 

 more pounds when dressed to be a large one, 

 and you can hear of them up to ten or twelve 

 pounds. On putting mine on the scales he 

 weighed exactly five and a half pounds, gross, 

 equivalent I suppose to three and a half or 

 four pounds, net. My faith in ten pounders is 

 small since then. 



AVith regard to tiie use of foot-rule and 

 scales by fishermen I can only say "don't." 

 (rive us liberty (to estimate the size of our fish) 

 or give us death. IT. H. Briuilei/. 



Raleigh, X. C. 



On the Nesting Habits and Eggs of 

 the Vermillion Flycatcher. 



This interesting Flyaitcher {PyvdrephalHS ni- 

 bineii>i iiit'.rirxnnis) is of <piite common occur- 

 rence throughout the most of Arizona. It is 

 not a bird of the mountains, but its favorite re- 

 sort is along the streams and washouts from the 

 mountains or in the valleys between tlie differ- 

 ent ranges. They sometimes enter the wide 

 canons and nest in the scrub oaks of the foot- 

 hills, but seem more at home among the syca- 

 m )res or willows of the water courses. 



Tlu\y are met with in considerable numbers 

 in the vicinity of Fort Huachuca, Arizona, and 

 during the spring of 1890 several dozen pairs 

 bred close to or within the post. A dry creek 



bed lined with sycamores and walnuts, and e\- 

 tendingout from the mountains several miles, 

 was their principal nesting grounds. In the 

 month of April most of these birds come up 

 from the south, the males in advance of the 

 females. As soon as the females arrive nest- 

 ing is begun, and by the middle of May most 

 of the nests are completed and eggs laid. 



I found my first nest of the season on May 

 9th. It contained four yrning birds a day or 

 two old which was an uiuisually early record 

 for this species. During the month of May 

 about a dozen nests were found contaiinng 

 eggs or young. These were usually jilaced in 

 oaks, sycamores, willows, or wahmts at from 

 eight to twenty feet from the ground. They 

 are generally at the end of a horizontal limb 

 either on a fork of the limb or on the main 

 limb, and generally but a small part of it is 

 visible from beneath. The male is usually 

 close about the nest, and its bright plumage, 

 together with its habit of poising and flutter- 

 ing in the air like a butterfly makes it very 

 consi)icuous. 



The nests and eggs of this bird are different 

 from those of any other species I am familiar 

 with. Though about the.'-ame color as a Wood 

 Pewee's nest they are more shallow, not so 

 large, and composed partly of short twigs 

 woven together with cobwebs. Often bits of 

 twigs are seen all over the inside of the nest 

 where eggs are lying. I have never seen any 

 lichens used in the construction of these nests, 

 although plenty of it is to be found on the 

 trees about them. The eggs are of a deep 

 cream or buff color, sometimes as deep as in 

 the eggs of Traill's Flycatcher, and are lieavily 

 marked with different shades of brown, gray, 

 and lilac : with usually a distinct and broad ring 

 of blotches aiound the larger eiul, altlumgli 

 sometimes the smaller eiul or the middle of 

 the egg is most heavily marked. Of a dozen 

 selected eggs the measurements are as follows: 

 .74X.50, .73X.56, .73 x ..'jr,, .72 x .oG, .72x..^;r), 

 .71 X ..")(], .()!) X ..55, .68 X ..'■).'j, .fiS x .53, .67 x .56. 

 .67 x ..53 and .63 x .52. 



The largest egg in the .series collected by 

 myself is .77 x .C)(^ and the smallest .()3 x .52. 



Ollio ('. Poliii;). 



Fort Hiiai'liuca, Arizona. 



Late Breeding of the Goldfinch. 



The well-known fact of an American Gold- 

 finch breeding later than other birds has been 

 a puzzle to ornithologists, especially as it stays 



