284 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Althoug'h the Olive-sided Flycatcher is rather evealy and widely distributed, 

 it can not be called a very common bird anywhere during the breeding season, 

 which is due perhaps more to its unsocial and quarrelsome habits than to any- 

 thing else. While it appears tolerant enough toward other species, it will not 

 allow any of its own kind to nes-t in close proximity to its chosen home, to which 

 it returns from year to year. Each pair seems to claim a certain ra>nge, which 

 is rarely less than half a mile in extent, and is usually located along some stream, 

 naar the shoi'e of a lake, or by some little pond; generally coniferous forests 

 saem to be preferred, but mixed ones answer their purposes almost equally well 

 as long as they border on a body of water or a beaver meadow and have a 

 few clumps of hemlock or spruce trees scattered through them, which furnish 

 suitable perches and points of lookout. In such situations one is reasonably 

 certain to find this species. 



Like all Flycatchers, their food consists almost exclusively of winged 

 insects, such as beetles, butterflies, moths, and the numerous gadflies which 

 abound in the places frequented by these birds. A dead limb or the decayed 

 top of some tall tree giving a good outlook close to the nesting site, is usually 

 selected for a perch, from which excui'sions ai'e made in difl^erent directions after 

 passing insects, which are often chased for quite a distance. This Flycatcher 

 usually arrives on its breeding grounds in the northern parts of the United 

 States about the middle of May, and its far-reaching call notes can then be 

 heard almost constantly in the early morning hours and again in the evening. 

 Unless close to the bird, this note sounds much like that of the Wood Pewee, 

 which utters a note of only two syllables, like "pee-wee," while that of the Olive- 

 sided Flycatcher really consists of three, like "hip-piii-whee." The first part 

 is uttered short and quick, while the latter two are so accented and drawn out, 

 that at a distance the call sounds as if likewise composed of only two notes, but 

 this is not the case. Their alarm note sounds like "puip-puip-puip," several 

 times repeated, or "puill-puill-puill;" this is usually given only when the nest is 

 approached, and occasionally a purring sound is also uttered. 



Nidification rarely begins anywhere throughout their range before June 1, 

 usually not before June 10, and in some seasons not before July. Tall ever- 

 green trees, such as pines, hemlocks, spruces, firs, and cedars, situated near the 

 edge of an opening or clearing- in the forest, not too far from water and com- 

 manding a good outlook, or on a bluff" along a stream, a hillside, the shore of a 

 lake or pond, are usually selected as nesting sites by this species, and the nest 

 is generally saddled well out on one of the limbs, where it is difficult to see and 

 still more so to get at. Only on rare occasions will this species nest in a decid- 

 uous tree; one instance has been recorded of a pair nesting in an apple and 

 another in a cottonwood tree, but these must be considered as exceptional cases. 



While on a collecting expedition with Dr. William L. Ralph, in Herkimer 

 County, New York, a nest of this species was found on June 18, 1892, in a spruce 

 tree, 45 feet from the ground, containing three eggs about one-third incubated. 

 The nest was placed on a horizontal limb, on some thick, leaf-covered twigs, 



