EMPIDONAX MINIMUS : LEAST FLYCATCHER. 43 



the nest. The eggs are generally four in number, some- 

 times only three ; five were not found in any one of six 

 nests examined. The average size of twenty specimens 

 was 0.65X0.50, with 0.68X0.52 and 0.59X0.50 as the 

 extremes of size and shape. They are pure white, and 

 normally without any markings whatever ; but, as in the 

 similar case of the Pewit Flycatcher, occasional eggs are 

 found to be dotted. A case of this kind has been in- 

 stanced by Mr. R. Hayward, who found a nest in an 

 apple tree at Milton, Mass., containing three normal 

 eggs, and one minutely dotted with reddish-brown, meas- 

 uring 0.63X0.50. The identity of this nest is vouched 

 for by Mr. Brewster : it was " like others of this species, 

 and the bird had the well-known note of chebec." (Bull. 

 Nutt. Club, iv, 1879, p. 124.) 



The gradual influence of civilization, which may in 

 time become as marked in the case of this species as it has 

 in that of the Pewit, has been noted by Dr. Brewer with 

 reference to the materials composing the nests. " Those 

 made on the edge of woodlands or in remote orchards 

 are wrought almost entirely of fine deciduous bark, 

 hempen fibres of vegetables, feathers, dried fragments 

 of insect cocoons, and other miscellaneous materials 

 felted or impacted together ; within this is a lining of 

 fine strips of vegetable bark, woody fibres, fine lichens 

 and soft downy feathers. In some the lining is ex- 

 clusively of fine pine leaves, in others with the seeds or 

 pappus of compositaceous plants. Those made in the 

 vicinity of dwellings indicate their neighborhood by the 

 variety of miscellaneous and convenient materials, such 

 as bits of paper, rags, cotton, wool, and the larger and 

 more conspicuous feathers of the poultry-yard. Where 

 raw cotton was abundantly provided, I have known this 



