THE OOLOGIST 



393 



tree to tree and screaming continual- 

 ly. The only nest I have ever found 

 was built in a cavity of an apple tree 

 in an old orchard, on the edge of the 

 woods, well removed from any house. 

 It was made of dried grasses and fine 

 twigs and a quantity of pine needles. 

 The six eggs which it contained were 

 about one-half incubated, were cold 

 when found and appeared to have 

 been deserted several days. This was 

 on July 4, 1902. 



To the bird lover, living in the city 

 and obliged to look to the city parks 

 for his few glimpses of bird life, the 

 Phoebe will long remain a stranger. 

 Neither will he often be found in the 

 woods. To make his acquaintance you 

 must visit the farm, go to the barn- 

 yard, and there you will find him at 

 home. They return from the south 

 in March (my earliest date is March 

 23d), and almost immediately turn to 

 the site of their last year's nest, and 

 during the summer are sduo./. at*,!. 

 far from their home. This is most 

 frequently under the barn, or a shed, 

 but sometimes on a beam under a 

 bridge; but wherever situated, the 

 birds will return to it year after year. 



Before the settlement of the coun- 

 try, the Phoebe probably placed its 

 nest against the side of a rock or cliff. 

 A nest of this sort came under my ob- 

 servation in 1905. On July 22d I found 

 four well fledged young in a nest built 

 in a crevice of a rock overhanging a 

 small cascade well up the mountain 

 side in the Berkshires. The nearest 

 house was several miles away. 



A typical nest is composed of moss, 

 fine grasses or hayseed, more or less 

 mud and lined with horsehair. If 

 placed in a mortise in a beam, or on 

 a ledge or end of a timber it will meas- 

 ure about Zy 2 inches in outside diame- 

 ter, by two or three inches in depth, 

 but placed against a wall or upright 

 ■beam with no support beneath, the 



nest is always built up higher and 

 will measure five or six inches in 

 depth. 



Five eggs generally constitute a set 

 for the first brood and the second may 

 consist of either four or five. Of the 

 various nests that I have examined, a 

 large proportion of them have had one 

 or more eggs spotted, l am inclined 

 to believe that spotted eggs are of 

 more regular occurrence than is com- 

 monly supposed, and that some birds 

 always lay spotted sets. I have found 

 nests placed in the same spot for three 

 consecutive years and each season 

 they contained spotted eggs. 



A nest for a second brood had the 

 following history: Started June 12, 

 1901, on a small ledge under a barn. 

 The birds worked rapidly collecting 

 most of their material under the barn 

 and bv the 16th it was completed. No 

 eggs were laid until the 19th. The 

 first egg was unmarked. Three more 

 "tv ere laid in as a*&u 3 a&ys. 1 num- 

 bered each egg as laid with an indel- 

 ible pencil. No 2 had a few faint 

 spots; No. 3 was more plainly marked, 

 and the last one was quite well cov- 

 ered about the larger end with fine 

 brown spots. Incubation lasted 14 

 days, the young emerging from the 

 shell July 6th. They remained in the 



The nesting season lasts from May 

 nest 15 days, flying on the 21st. 

 1st to the last of July. After the first 

 of August the birds seem to disappear 

 from the barnyard and you find young 

 and old in clumps of Alder or Gray 

 Birch along streams or sometimes in 

 growths of young Pine. They now 

 renew their worn out plumage and 

 early in October, leave for the South. 



The Olive-sided Flycatcher is not 

 common in eastern Massachusetts. 

 Formerly breeding around Boston as 

 attested by Nuttall in 1830, and Audu- 

 bon in 1832, and by Mr. G. O. Welch 

 in 1858 at Lynn, it has gradually de- 



