296 LIFE HISTO'EIES OP NOETH AMEEICAK BIRDS. 



so rare in most oological collections. I have only been able to observe this 

 species in the vicinity of its nest, and can not add much information in regai'd 

 to its general habits. Its call note is a low, plaintive "peeh peeh," the last part 

 more emphasized; another, an alarm note, sounds like "turri turri;" the same 

 note I put down the previous season as "trehe-eh, trehe-eh," with the remark 

 that it reminded me somewhat of the sound produced by sliding a finger over a 

 violin string. 



Its food probably consists exclusively of small insects, which certainly are 

 abundant enough in the places frequented by it. It arrives on its breeding 

 grouiids in our Northern States during the last two weeks in May, and nidifica- 

 tion usually begins about the second week in June, occurring somewhat later 

 farther north. 



We are indebted to Mr. H. A. Purdie for the first authentic description of 

 the nest and eggs of the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (see "Bulletin Nuttall Orni- 

 thological Club," Vol. Ill, 1873, pp. 166-168), and since then the correctness of 

 his identification has been fully verified. Dr. A. K. Fisher took a handsome set 

 of four eggs on June 26, 1882, in the Catskill Mountains, Ulster County, New 

 York, near the summit of Slide Mountain, at an altitude of over 3,500 feet. 

 These he generously presented to the United States National Museum, which 

 was the first genuine set in this collection. Tlie locality where it was found 

 and the nest itself are thus described: 



"On the slope whereon the birds had made their home an abundant growth 

 of bright-green moss invested the rugged configuration of the surface and 

 enfolded the scattered remains of trees — ancestors, perhaps, of the young growth 

 of balsams which clustered about the spot and afforded seclusion to the little 

 pair that had come among them. The nest was built in a cavity scooped in a 

 bed of moss facing the side of a low rock. The cavity had been excavated to a 

 depth of 2^ inches and was 2 inches across. The opening, but little less than 

 the width of the nest, was 9 inches from the ground, and, partially hidden by 

 overhanging roots, revealed the eggs within only to close inspection. 



"The primary foundation of the nest was a layer of brown rootlets; upon 

 this rested the bulk of the structure, consisting of moss matted together with 

 fine-broken weed stalks and other fragmentary material. The inner nest could 

 be removed entire from the outer wall, and was composed of a loosely woven 

 but, from its thickness, somewhat dense fabric of fine materials, consisting 

 mainly of the bleached stems of some slender sedge and the black and shining 

 rootlets of, apparently, ferns, closely resembling horsehair. Between the two 

 sections of the structure, and appearing only when they were sepai'ated, was a 

 scant layer of the glossy orange pedicels of a moss {Polytriclmm) not a fragment 

 of which was elsewhere visible. The walls of the internal nest'were about one- 

 half an inch in thickness, and had doubtless been accomplished with a view of 

 protection from dampiaess. 



"Prof Daniel C. Eaton, of New Haven, very kindly assumed the task of 

 determining the different species of moss which entered into the composition 



