194 



THE OOLOGIST 



spend most of their time on tlie top- 

 most limbs of the big stubs. Here 

 they sit uttering at intervals, their 

 loud harsh whistle of two, sometimes 

 three notes. This whistle can be 

 heard a long ways on a quiet day. It 

 is very unlike the note of any other 

 of our birds. 



I have never met with the Olive-sid- 

 ed in the farming districts along the 

 river, but always back in the moun- 

 tains. 



Because of its rarity, data is lacking 

 as to the dates of its arrival and de- 

 parture. 



I first met with the olive-sided when 

 a kid, I used to camp and fish for trout 

 in June in the mountains about fif- 

 teen miles from here. For three sea- 

 sons we heard the birds in the slash- 

 ing along the edge of the heavy tim- 

 ber near camp and recent experience 

 leads me to think it was the same pair 

 each year. I did not again meet with 

 it for a number of seasons, but during 

 1900 I was quite fortunate. 



In June, while trouting in the vicin- 

 ity of our old camp, I located a pair 

 and wrote to Mr. W. B. C. Todd of the 

 Carnegie Museum Pittsburg. He had 

 been trying to get a pair from this 

 state for several years, so he came 

 up and was fortunate enough to secure 

 both. In July I put in a week trout- 

 ing with an old hunter. We covered 

 a lot of country and I located two pairs 

 of Olive-sides. The old fellow took 

 an old shot gun into camp as dogs 

 were almost daily running deer and he 

 intended to put an end to it. With 

 this gun and a little heavy shot I got 

 an Olive-sided, but badly torn, so did 

 not try another. 



That fall in September, while col- 

 lecting water birds on the ''Peninsula" 

 near Erie, Pennsylvania, I took a fine 

 female Olive-sided the only record 

 from that region. 



On the 3rd of June, 1901, I secured 

 a fine male from a tall pine stub. In 

 1904, I again located a pair, this time 

 nearby, and by keeping close tab on 

 them I found the nest and secured 

 birds, nest and all for my collection. 



In May, 1906, while hunting Ravens 

 in Clearfield County, I saw a pair. 

 Since then I have found two pairs of 

 these birds, and have made many trips 

 to their haunts to watch and listen. 



These two pairs are about a mile 

 apart. I found one pair in the spring 

 of 1907. They nested and returned 

 again in 1908 and again this sum- 

 mer, making three seasons they 

 have spent in this one spot 

 that I know of. The other pair I found 

 last season and they were again on 

 hand this summer making their sec- 

 ond year here at least. 



By watching the old birds I find it 

 easy to locate the nest. When build- 

 ing the female is quite noisy and very 

 restless. Her call is unlike the male's 

 being a series of five to eight loud 

 and rapidly uttered chip-like notes, 

 much like the cross-bill's, only loud- 

 er. While the female is building the 

 male is most of the time perched close 

 by on a big stub from which he makes 

 frequent excursions after insects and 

 at intervals gives his peculiar call. 



Altogether I have found and examin- 

 ed five nests. All were in second- 

 growth hemlocks. All were on horiz- 

 ontal limbs from three to twelve feet 

 from the trunk and with one exception 

 were well hidden from view from the 

 ground. The lowest nest was twenty 

 and the highest fifty feet from the 

 ground. They required from five to 

 seven days to build. The material us- 

 ed was small dead hemlock twigs on 

 many of which small pieces of lichen 

 was sticking. They were lined with 

 a very few pieces of dried grass. The 

 nests were all rather shallow affairs; 

 several I could almost see through. 



In all cases the eggs were three in 

 number and looked not unlike the 

 wood pewee's on a large scale. The 

 ground color is much the same, but 

 the eggs are much more heavily spott- 

 ed and wreathed. When climbing to 

 the nest I have found both old birds 

 very courageous and have had them 

 repeatedly dart within a few feet of 

 my head. 



One nest that I found was robbed 

 by a red squirrel or Blue Jay before 

 the set was complete, but in about 

 ten days more the female began a sec- 

 ond nest in the same tree on a limb 

 fifteen feet lower down. In building 

 this second nest she used fully half the 

 material of the first nest. While sit- 



