THE ACADIAN FLYCATCHER. 303 



he sent a nest and a set of eggs to the Museiim collection. Mr. J. W. Preston 

 writes me that it is common in Hardin County, Iowa, describing the nest as a 

 frail, semipensile structure, fastened to a fork near the extremity of drooping 

 branches, 6 or 8 feet from the ground, and formed of vines of Latliyrus, inter- 

 woven with a few grasses and oak catkins, fastened with spider webs, in thick 

 underbrush, but near openings. Dr. P. L. Hatch states that it is fairly common 

 in Minnesota. Mr. Ernest E. Thompson, in his "Birds of Manitoba," gives it as 

 quite common in the vicinity of Duck Mountain, and Col. N. S. Gross, in his 

 "Birds of Kansas," says: "Not uncommon in the eastern part of the State," and 

 he also records it from eastern Nebraska. 



The Acadian Flycatcher is one of the later migrants to arrive on its breed- 

 ing grounds, and none winter within our borders. It reenters the United States 

 from its winter haunts usually about the middle of April, and moves leisurely 

 northward, arriving on its breeding grounds in the more northern portions of 

 its range during the last half of May. In the mountain regions of Pennsyl- 

 vania, the Virginias, North Carolina, etc., it is rarely found above an alti- 

 tude of 3,000 feet. The favorite summer haunts of this species are generally 

 deep, shady, second-growth hard-wood forests, on rather elevated ground, espe- 

 cially beech woods with little undergrowth, or bottom lands not subject to 

 periodical overflow, and not far from water. In such localities its peculiar call 

 notes, resembling "wick-up" or "hick -up," interspersed now and then with a 

 sharp "queep-queep" or "chier-queep," the first syllable very quickly uttered, 

 and another, somewhat like "wlioty, whoty," may be frequently heard; but 

 the bird, although not particularly shy, is rarely seen while moving through the 

 dense foliage of the lower limbs from tree to tree. I have several times failed 

 to detect the bird when I was perfectly certain it was within 20 feet of me. 



Like nearly all Flycatchers, the Acadian is rather iinsociable and quarrel- 

 some Avith its own kind, especially during the mating season. Its food consists 

 almost entirely of small insects, which are caught on the wing and rarely missed, 

 and to a small extent only on wild berries. It is an extremely beneficial species, 

 doing no harm whatever, and deserves the fullest protection. 



In our Northern States nidification rarely commences before June, while 

 in the more southern States it nests sometimes during the first week in May. In 

 the vicinity of Washington, District of Columbia, where the Acadian Flycatcher 

 is a common summer resident, it usually breeds during the first ten days in 

 June. Their favorite nesting sites are in drooping branches of various sorts of 

 trees and bushes, mostly beech, witch-hazel, dogwood, sweet gum, hickory, and 

 oak, and less often in wild crab apple, hawthorn, hemlock, pine, cypress, willow, 

 and birch trees, at heights ranging from about 4 to 20 feet from the ground. 

 The nests, many of which are rather shallow, open-work, sieve-like structures, are 

 semipensile, their upper rims being attached to the fork of some slender twig, like 

 the nests of the Vireos; but do not resemble these in any other respect, and show 

 great variation in size and in the character of the materials of which they are 

 built. In the South many are constructed almost exclusively of Spanish moss ; 



