304 LIFE HISTORIES OP NORTII AMERICAN BIRDS. 



in the North the body of the nest is composed principally of decayed fibrous 

 material, dark-colored rootlets interwoven with a few blades of grass, catkins, dry 

 blossoms, and usually decorated more or less abundantly with the male aments 

 or catkins of oak or other trees. There really is no inner lining, and the bottom 

 of the nest is usually so thin that the eggs can very readily be seen through it 

 from below. In some nests the outer decorations of catkins are omitted, and the 

 walls are composed of fine weed stems, silky plant fibers, and fine strips of bark, 

 mixed with plant down, cocoons, and spider webs. This style of nest is appar- 

 ently considerable stronger than the former, and usually somewhat larger. A 

 rather well-built specimen, taken by Mr. Charles W. Richmond, June 14, 1885, 

 near Washington, District of Columbia, measures 2f inches in outer diameter by 

 2 inches in depth, while another, already mentioned as taken by Mr. H. P. Att- 

 water on the Medina River, Texas, measures likewise 2f inches in outer diameter, 

 but only 1 ^ inches in depth ; the inner cavity is only 2 inches wide and about 

 three-quarters of an inch deep. There are several other nests in the collection 

 equally shallow. Attached as they are to slender, drooping branches, it is sur- 

 prising how the eggs are prevented from rolling out in a heavy wind storm unless 

 the parent is on the nest. Occasionally one is found which has some of the 

 materials of which it is built hanging down from the sides, giving it a very untidy 

 appearance. 



Mr. Witmer Stone showed me a very peculiar nest of this Flycatcher which 

 he took on the lower Susquehanna River, in York County, Pennsylvania, in June, 

 1890. It was situated on the extremity of a low branch of a hemlock tree, 

 about 6 feet from the ground, and was constructed entirely of the long, gray 

 lichen, TJsnea barbata. In fact, there are three distinct types of these nests ; the 

 first and most common one is more or less abundantly decorated with the male 

 aments of different species of trees; a second, in which these exterior ornamenta- 

 tions are dispensed with, and the last, where the nest is built entirely, or in large 

 part, of different kinds of tree mosses. Occasionally the Acadian Flycatcher 

 builds a double nest — for instance, when a Cowbird has deposited an egg in one 

 just completed, before the owner has laid in it. Mr. W. E. Loucks, of Peoria, 

 Illinois, sends me such a record. The nest found by him contained a Cowbird's 

 egg in the lower story and three fresh eggs in the upper one. The Acadian Fly- 

 catcher is one of the species on which this parasite imposes occasionally. I 

 believe that but one brood is raised in a season. During the latter half of Sep- 

 tember the return migration to their winter homes commences. 



The number of eggs to a set varies from two to four, while sets of three are 

 most often found; but sets of four in certain sections of its range, in Pennsylvania 

 for instance, are said to be not especially rare; an egg is deposited daily. In 

 shape they range from ovate to an elliptical ovate; the shell is close grained, and 

 occasionally slightly lustrous. The ground color varies from pale cream to buff 

 color, and the markings consist of moderate-sized spots, and again of mere specks, 

 ranging from liver brown and ferruginous to a light rufous tint. None of the 

 eggs are heavily spotted, and most of these markings are generally concentrated 

 about the larger end of the egg. Occasionally one is almost entirely unspotted. 



