January, 1882.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



83 



Fork-tailed Flycatcher. 



A very common bird during five months 

 of the year, from April to September, is 

 the Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Milviilus Ty- 

 r annus {Liufi), also called by the natives, 

 "Texan Bird of Paradise." This beauti- 

 ful niember of the family Tyramiidae is 

 very abundant during the breeding season 

 in all suitable localities, especially in the 

 prairies covered with mesquit bushes 

 {Algarobia g/andtilosa.) They are also 

 found common in the live oak ''''bosquets'' 

 and on the edges of woods bordering the 

 prairies. The nest is usually built in the 

 top of a mesquit bush, from six to twelve 

 feet from the ground; but I discovered it 

 often on the edges of woods in the top ot a 

 postoak {Quercus obtusiloba), about thirty 

 to forty feet from the ground. All nests I 

 found last season were built exteriorly of a 

 small creeping downy ^\3in\.{Gossypiant/ius 

 toinentosus), mixed with cotton and a few 

 cow hairs. They were lined very soft and 

 sxnooth with cotton, and some with a few 

 fine plant fibres besides cotton. The eggs, 

 four to five in number, have a white cream - 

 color ground and covered sparingly with 

 thick blotches of dark brown. Some sets, 

 however, are more densely spotted and 

 blotched with a lighter shade of brown. 

 These birds are in this locality very unsus- 

 picious, breeding sometimes in close prox- 

 imity to a dwelling and only a few feet 

 from a very frequented road. In such in- 

 stances the nest is built almost always in a 

 mulberry tree. In the eastern part of Tex- 

 as, in the coast region near Houston, it 

 was very difficult to discover a nest of this 

 magnificent bird. There they breed al- 

 ways in trees densely covered with the 

 long gray Spanish moss {Tillandsia urneoi- 

 des), where it is almost impossible to find 

 a nest. They arrive from their winter 

 quarters late in March or in the first days 

 of April. In the early part of September, 

 these birds gather sometimes in large flocks, 

 and by the last of that month all have de- 

 parted for the south. — H. Nehrlmg. 



Fork-tailed Flycatcher. 



