400 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
men at Mackinac Island, August 15, 1890; on the Charity Islands, Saginaw 
Bay, N. A. Wood found it from August 18 to October 10, 1910; Wood 
and Frothingham saw it in Crawford County, June 16, and Oscoda county, 
June 18, on the tops of pines, where it was rare, and Wood again recorded 
it several times in Ontonagon county in July and August, 1904, and found 
it common on Isle Royale from August 17 to 28 the same year; the writer 
saw two individuals along the Au Sable at Grayling, Crawford county, 
June 8, 1902, and F. H. Chapin records it as seen in Emmet, Cheboygan 
and Charlevoix counties in August and September. E. A. Doolittle found 
several in Baraga and Marquette counties in June, 1905, and several pairs 
on Grand Island, Munising Harbor, in the summer of 1906. Max M. Peet 
noted it on Isle Royale, Lake Superior, in 1905, as follows: ‘Seen at Rock 
Harbor in the tamarack and spruce swamps; Siskowit Bay and Washington 
Harbor, July 17 to September 3. A rather common resident and probably 
nesting, although no nests were found. A pair was taken July 17 in a 
tamarack swamp. In nearly every swamp visited two or three pairs were 
found. Asa rule found in pairs, sometimes with a third, perhaps a young 
one” (Rep. Mich. Geol. Surv., 1908, p. 358). So far as we know no Michigan 
nest is recorded, but there can be no doubt whatever that the bird breeds 
wherever found between the middle of June and last of July. 
The nest is commonly placed in an evergreen, a horizontal branch being 
preferred, and at a height of fifteen to fifty feet from the ground. It is 
built of twigs, roots and moss, is decidedly small considering the size of the 
bird, but very compactly built and securely lodged in its place, although 
so shallow that the eggs may be easily shaken out. These are usually 
three in number, cream colored, spotted with different shades of brown 
and purple, somewhat resembling large specimens of the Wood Pewee’s 
eggs. They average about .82 by .71 inches. Captain Bendire states that 
the period of incubation does not exceed fourteen days, and that the young 
are said to remain in the nest about three weeks. 
The Olive-sided Flycatcher has a habit of perching on the tops of high 
trees, either green or dead, from which it makes long sallies after insects 
and utters occasionally its loud and striking call notes. These are very 
differently described by different writers, but to us they always suggest 
the note of the Piping Plover. Bendire compares the ordinary call to that 
of the Wood Pewee, but states that it consists of three notes like ‘“hip- 
pui-whee,” while the alarm note he gives as “puip-puip-puip.”’ 
The food consists mainly of winged insects, and in so far as we know, 
the bird must be considered beneficial to the agriculturist and forester. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Adult: Upper parts dark brownish olive, blackish on top of head, many feathers with 
blackish centers; wings and tail clear brownish black (fuscous), the tertiaries and some 
of the wing-coverts with grayish or whitish margins; chin, throat and belly white or 
yellowish, and often a narrow stripe of this color along the middle of breast; rest of under 
parts olive like the back, most of the feathers with blackish centers, giving a mottled 
or streaked appearance; a conspicuous tuft of yellowish downy feathers on the flank; upper 
cone dusky; lower mandible yellowish except at tip, where dusky; feet black, iris 
brown. 
Length 7.10 to 7.90 inches; wing 3.90 to 4.50; tail 2.80 to 3.50; culmen .58 to .70. 
