bird. Male and female, both engage in the work of nest-building. Feathers, a few grasses 

 and bark-strips form the foundation of the structure. The main material, however, which 

 enters into the composition of the nest, is snake-skin. I have examined many nests, but 

 this peculiar substance was always present. Sometimes only a few pieces are found, and 

 in such cases they are mixed with the other material. Sometimes a whole skin is 

 arranged in a circular way around the rim. When the whole skin has been used, 

 few other substances are employed. The birds are very intent upon this material. 

 One morning I found a small snake in one of my Canary cages. The hideous reptile 

 had swallowed both inmates, but after its meal there was no possibility to escape 

 through the wires. The next morning I found the snake coiled up in one corner. It 

 was easily killed, and I threw it a short distance from the house in the garden. Ants 

 soon began their work, and in a few hours nothing was left but the skin and skeleton. 

 Several Crested Flycatchers were anxiously waiting for the skin. They often flew^ down, 

 trying to carry the Snake away; then they alighted on the fence until the ants had 

 finished their work, when they carried off the whole skin". Other ornithologists also have 

 found this material in the nests of the Crested Flycatcher. Probably the skin is used 

 as a protection against the depredations of snakes, who are only too apt to plunder 

 birds' nests within their reach. I have never observed that snakes enter the nests of 

 the Crested Flycatcher, while they destroy those of other birds, where such substances 

 are not employed. The eggs, usually four or five, show a very peculiar coloration. 

 Their ground-color is creamy-white or light buff, "over which are waving lines, marblings, 

 markings, and dots of a brilliant purple, and others of more obscure shading. The lines 

 are variously distributed, generally running from one pole of the egg to the other with 

 striking effect, as if laid on with the delicate brush of an artist. In some eggs the whole 

 surface is so closely covered with these intercrossing and w^aving lines, blending with 

 the obscure cloudings of lilac, as nearly to conceal the ground. Usually the buff color 

 is conspicuously apparent, and sets off the purple lines with great effect." (Brewer.) 



These birds evince great uneasiness if their nest is examined, especially after the 

 young are hatched. The latter are fed with all kinds of flying insects, and they leave 

 the nest when they are about two weeks old. They have a very peculiar and rather 

 unpleasant smell. In early September these birds are seen in large numbers on the edges of 

 woods, especially near cotton-fields, where they are all busily engaged in capturing the 

 moths of the injurious cotton and boll-worms. In Texas they leave late in September 

 or early in October, and in the North none are seen after the first week of September. 

 They always migrate singly, and never assemble into flocks. Their winter home is found 

 in Central America, the "West Indies, and, probably, the northern parts of South America. 

 NAMES: Crested Flycatcher, Great-crested Flycatcher.— Haubentyrann (German). 

 SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Muscwapa crinita Linn. (1766). Tyrannus crinitus Swains. (1826). MYIARCHUS 



CRINITUS Cabanis (1855). Musckapa ladoviciana GvaeX. (1788). Tyrannus ludovicianusY\eS{. (1807). 

 DESCRIPTION: Above, dull grayish-olive; beneath on throat and chest, deep ashy-gray; belly, bright 



sulphur-yellow. Tail-feathers, mostly chestnut; primaries, edged with the same; outer tail-feathers, edged 



with yellow ; crown-feathers, erectile, often forming a loose crest. 

 Length, 8.75 inches; wing, 4.15; tail, 3.85 inches. 



The Mexican Crested Flycatcher, Myiarchus mexicanus Lawr., is the true 

 counterpart of the foregoing species. It is common in the valley of the lower Rio Grande 



