424 OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER. 



fiTty feet from the ground. It was formed much in the manner of the 

 King-bird's, externally made of interlaced dead twigs of the cedar, inter- 

 nally of wiry stolons of the common cinquefoil, dry grass, and some frag- 

 ments of branching lichen or usnea. It contained three young, and had 

 probably four eggs. The eggs had been hatched about the 20th of June, 

 so that the pair had arrived in this vicinity about the close of May. 

 The young remained in the nest no less than twenty-three days, and were 

 fed from the first on beetles and perfect insects, which appeared to have 

 been wholly digested, without any regurgitation. Towards the close of 

 this protracted period, the young could fly with all the celerity of their 

 parents, and they probably went to and from the nest before abandoning 

 it. The male was at this time extremely watchful, and frequently fol- 

 lowed me from his usual residence, after my paying him a visit, nearly 

 half a mile. These birds, which I watched on several successive days, 

 were no way timid, and allowed me for some time previous to visiting 

 their nest, to investigate them and the premises they had chosen, without 

 showing any sign of alarm or particular observation." 



I received from my friend the following additional account, in a letter 

 dated September 12. 1833. " Something serious has happened to our 

 pair of the new Flycatchers [Musckapa Cooperi), which have for three 

 years at least, bred and passed the summer in the grounds of Mount 

 Auburn. This summer they were no longer seen. It is true they were 

 not very well used last year ; for, in the first place, I took two of the 

 four eggs they had laid, when they deserted the nest, and soon, within 

 little more than a stone's-throw, they renewed their labours, and made a 

 second, which was also visited ; but from this I believe they raised a small 

 brood. The nest, as before, was placed on a horizontal branch of a red 

 cedar, and made chiefly of the smallest interlaced twigs collected from 

 the dead limbs of the same tree, in all cases so thin, like that of the Ta- 

 nager, as to let the light readily through its interstices. An egg you 

 have, which, as to size, so completely resembles that of the Wood Pewee, 

 as to make one and the same description serve for both ; that is to say, a 

 yellowish cream-white, with spots of reddish-brown, of a light and dark 

 shade. All the nests, three in number, were within 150 yards of each 

 other respectively. I saw another pair once in a small piece of dry pine 

 wood in Mount Auburn one year ; but they did not stay long. A third 

 pair I saw the summer before the last, on the edge of the marsh towards 

 West Cambridge Pond ; these appeared resident. The next pair I had 



