Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored 



The fact that gives the great-crested flycatcher a unique in- 

 terest among all North American birds is that it invariably lines 

 its nest with snake-skins if one can be had. Science would 

 scarcely be worth the studying if it did not set our imaginations 

 to work delving for plausible reasons for Nature's strange doings. 

 Most of us will doubtless agree with Wilson (who made a special 

 study of these interesting nests and never found a single one 

 without cast snake-skins in it, even in districts where snakes 

 were so rare they were supposed not to exist at all), that the 

 lining was chosen to terrorize all intruders. The scientific 

 mind that is unwilling to dismiss any detail of Nature's work as 

 merely arbitrary and haphazard, is greatly exercised over the 

 reason for the existence of crests on birds. But, surely, may not 

 the sight of snake-skins that first greet the eyes of the fledgling 

 flycatchers as they emerge from the shell be a good and sufficient 

 reason why the feathers on their little heads should stand on 

 end? "In the absence of a snake-skin, 1 have found an onion 

 skin and shad scales in the nest," says John Burroughs, who calls 

 this bird "the wild Irishman of the flycatchers." 



Olive-sided Flycatcher 



(Contopus borealis) Flycatcher family 



Length^-'] to 7.5 inches. About an inch longer than the English 

 sparrow. 



Male and Female— Tinsky olive or grayish brown above; head 

 darkest. Wings and tail blackish brown, the former some- 

 times, but not always, margined and tipped with dusky 

 white. Throat yellowish white ; other under parts slightly 

 lighter shade than above. Olive-gray on sides. A tuft of 

 yellowish- white, downy feathers on flanks. Bristles at base 

 of bill. 



Range — From Labrador to Panama. Winters in the tropics. 



Nests usually north of United States, but it also breeds in the 



Catskills. 

 Migrations — May. September. Resident only in northern part 



of its range. 



Only in the migrations may people south of Massachusetts 

 hope to see this flycatcher, which can be distinguished from the 

 rest of its kin by the darker under parts, and by the fluffy, yel- 



74 



