THE YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER. 297 



of the nest and of the moss bed ha which it rested, and his investigation disclosed 

 the fact that the mosses which abounded immediately about the nest had not 

 been utilized as building- material. As determined by Professor Eaton, the 

 species of moss composing- the bed were Hypnum umbratum, Hypnum splendens, 

 Hypnum schreberi, Hypnum crista-castrensis. Those appearing in the nest were 

 Hypnum miiUeriamim, Hypnum muJilenhecJcii (?), Dicranum longifolium, Dicranum 

 flagellare, Polytrichum commune, and PolytricJium formosum. With these occurred 

 the following Hepaticse: Mastigohryum trilobatum, Scapania albicans, and Cepha- 

 lozia bicu'spidata. In addition there were found among the materials of construc- 

 tion catkin scales of the birch, leaves of the balsam, and fragments of the dried 

 pinnae of ferns; but, as suggested by Professor Eaton, the presence of some 

 of these was probably accidental. Springing from the verdant moss beds 

 immediately about the nest were scattered jjlants of Oxalis acetosella, Trientalis 

 americana, Solidago thyrsoidea, and Clintonia borealis.'"^ 



I am indebted to Dr. William L. Ralph for the opportunity of studying the 

 nesting habits of this interesting Flycatcher. While on a tour of observation 

 in the southwestern portions of the Adirondack mountains in Herkimer County, 

 New York, while passing through a swampy piece of mixed woods which was 

 free from undergrowth in this particular spot, bxit mostly covered with dense 

 alder thickets in the immediate vicinity, a nest and four eggs of this species was 

 found on June 17, 1892. The nest was placed among the upturned roots of a 

 medium-sized spruce tree, to which considerable soil, which was entirely covered 

 with a luxuriar^t growth of spagnum moss, was still attached. This perpendic- 

 ular moss and fern covered surface measured about 6 by 8 feet. The nest was 

 simk into the moss and soil behind, about 14 inches above the ground; the 

 entrance was partly hidden by some ferns and the growing moss around it, and, 

 taken all in all, it was one of the neatest and most cunningly hidden pieces of bird 

 architecture I have ever seen. I might have walked past a dozen times without 

 noticing it. It contained four eggs, in which incubation was about one-third 

 advanced. The entrance was nearly circular, and measured about l^- inches 

 in diameter. The inner cup of the nest itself measured about 2 inches in 

 diameter and 1^- inches in depth. It was composed of fine grasses and a few 

 black, hair-like rootlets and flower stems of mosses. A couple of days after 

 finding this nest a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher was seen flitting about the upturned 

 roots of a tree about 150 yards from where the first was taken, biit a most 

 careful search failed to reveal the location of the nest, if a second pair bred 

 there. 



On a subsequent visit to the same locality, on June 8, 1893, a second nest 

 was found, containing two eggs ; these were left until June 10, when there were 

 four. This nest was placed not over 100 feet from the former, and was probably 

 built by the same pair of birds which nested there the previous year. The 

 nesting site was in a swampy wood, composed mostly of spruce and tamarack 

 trees, in a slight hollow in the side of and at the foot of a small mound about one 



1 Transactions Linnseau Society, Vol. I, 1882, pp. 161, 162. 



