138 



THE OOLOGIST. 



The Great-Crested Flycatcher is a 

 fairly common bird in eastern United 

 States, but on account of its retiring 

 disposition is not very well known. It 

 arrives from the South early in May 

 and remains with us until September. 

 Niditication generally begins about tbe 

 first week in June and fresh eggs may 

 be found in July. The best time, how- 

 ever for fresh sets is about the middle 

 of June. 



I can well remember even now the cir- 

 cumstances under which I first saw one 

 of the eggs of the species. I was about 

 nine years of age at the time and, with 

 some companions was standing in front 

 of the school house at East Madison, N. 

 J., where I have spent a good portion 

 of my early existence. We were en- 

 gaged in the arduous occupation of 

 doing nothing in particular when a 

 farm boy approached, and exposed to 

 our view an egg of this species which 

 none of us had ever seen befoi'e. 



With envious eyes I surveyed the pe- 

 culiarly marked specimen, and when 

 the boy with magnanimous generosity 

 offered to dispose of it at the low price 

 of 25 cents, which he assurred us was 

 about equivalent to giving it away, I 

 jumped at the bargain, but next minute 

 lugubriously confessed that I hadn't 

 the money. 



The boy collected an additional egg 

 each clay till we had scrutinized five 

 specimens and fully believing that he 

 had now taken the full complement and 

 having besides sold all the other eggs at 

 prices ranging from ten cents to a 

 quarter, consented at my entreaty to 

 show me the nest, which I found in an 

 isolated hollow stub. This stub was 

 about 12 feet high and so excessively 

 ci'ooked that it might be said to ap- 

 proach the bounds of deformity. Hav- 

 ing first been laughingly informed that 

 I could have what the nest contained, 

 I impetuously scrambled up and had 

 just time to insert my hand in the nest 

 which was but a few inches from the 



top and to seize to my great joy and 

 astonishment an egg, when the stub 

 fell. In withdrawing the egg on such 

 short time allowance, I pushed the 

 nest from its original site, and after- 

 ward found it on the ground, it having 

 traversed internally the length of the 

 stub and having come out where the 

 stub had broken off. During this time 

 I had traversed the stub's length exter- 

 nally, sustained no bruises and retained 

 the egg intact much to my guides cha- 

 grin, who sincerely expressed his I'egret 

 at having made such a rash agreement 

 and for some time this egg stood pre- 

 eminent so to speak in my collection. 



This Flycatcher is of the persevering 

 genus in that it will lay the full comple- 

 ment no matter if each egg is taken be- 

 fore another is laid, and some times 

 this indefatigability is not without its 

 reward, which the following example 

 will well illustrate. 



Some years after the preceding rem- 

 iniscence, not having since found any 

 more of this species eggs, a friend and 

 myself were exploring an old remote 

 orchard, when I upon inserting my 

 hand in a large hole felt an egg. With- 

 out hestitation I called out ' 'Sparrow's 

 egg," but upon drawing the egg out 

 was overjoyed to find it a Crested Fly- 

 catcher's. 



Moved by the other boy's entreaty 

 I left the egg for the time being, but 

 the next day we revisited the spot each 

 returning home an egg richer. As we 

 only collected singles, we agreed to 

 leave the prospective remainder of the 

 set undisturbed. The nest, however, 

 was found three days later by some 

 other oologists and the thi-ee eggs tak- 

 en. In the course of a couple of weeks 

 while again collecting in the locality I 

 visited the nest, and found a recently 

 hatched young bird, which proved that 

 the birds had succeeded in hatching 

 their sixth and last egg. 



The female is not a close setter and 

 I have rarely surprised her on the nest. 



