260 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



morning, while making observations, I found a brood of young Crested Fly- 

 catchers, barely able to fly, which the parents vainly tried to coax away from 

 the neighborhood, and I identified the makers of this note fully. The depressed 

 crest was raised while uttering it, and the calls were repeated for minutes at a 

 time, as the young were not inclined to leave the trees they were in. 



Mr. J. W. Preston writes me: "I heard a peculiar note of this Flycatcher 

 one evening at sunset. The singer was perched in the top of a tall tree, and 

 along with the ordinary song it uttered a clear, liquid 'birdie-birdie,' with much 

 the same tone and energy of the Cardinal's song." 



I consider this Flycatcher much shyer and generally more retiring than other 

 species of this family, like the Kingbii'd, Wood Pewee, Phoebe, etc., and, although 

 probably equally abundant in some sections as the species mentioned, it is not 

 nearly as often noticed. It appears to me to be rather unsocial in its habits, and 

 one will rarely see more than a pair together excepting during the migrations. 

 From my own observations, I take it also to be more intolerant toward smaller 

 birds generally than other Flycatchers, but not as pugnacious as the Kingbird 

 toward larger birds. Among each other they are rather quarrelsome, and after 

 a pair has selected a nesting site no intruders are allowed to encroach on then" 

 range. 



The late Colonel Gross says: "They fight fiercely for a mate, and they have 

 a habit that I have not noticed in other birds, of plucking, if possible, the tail 

 feathers of a rival, in order to disfigure him, so that he will not be looked upon 

 with favor by the opposite sex; and when lucky enough to pull a feather, it is 

 amusing' to see them fuss over it, picking, pulling, in fact fighting it, forgetting 

 for the time the owner in their exultation over the capture."^ 



Its favorite haunts are the heavily timbered bottom lands along the banks 

 of streams and the borders of timbered tracts contiguous to water, and generally 

 at some little distance from human habitations. Sometimes an exception is 

 found to this rule, and pairs of these Flycatchers have been known to nest in 

 close proximity to dwellings, and even in such artificial nesting sites as martin 

 boxes, etc. 



From an economic point of view the Crested Flycatcher must be considered 

 an extremely useful bird. Its food consists mainly of insects, such as beetles, 

 various species of flies, grasshoppers, butterflies, moths, and larvae, varied in the 

 late summer with wild berries of different kinds. Its flight is strong, swift, and 

 graceful, but rarely protracted. Each bird has a few favorite perches within 

 its range, generally a dead limb near the top of a tree on the edge of a wood, 

 whence it darts after passing- insects, which seldom escape capture; these are 

 then carried to the nearest perch and devoured at leisure. I have seen it double 

 in the chase with as much ease as a Falcon, and the sharp snapping- of its 

 mandibles indicated j^lainly that its sudden dash was successful. 



Nidification commences ordinarily some two or three weeks after its 

 arrival on the breeding gronilds, each pair of birds selecting a suitable nesting 



' History of the Birds of Kansas, 1891, p. 360. 



