THE 
AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
Voi. xv. — AUGUST, 1881.— No. 8. 
mnie eae 
THE GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHER. 
BY MRS, MARY TREAT. 
: Farid Spring a pair of noisy great crested flycatchers aban- 
doned their usual nesting place in the woods, and resolved to 
take up their abode among civilized birds. 
It is only a few years since the wood pewee was first observed 
to leave the dark woods and nest around our dwellings, This 
little bird builds a neat compact nest which it glues fast to the 
limb of a tree, and lines it’ with some soft material. In Southern 
New Jersey it often uses the silky down of the cotton grass 
(Eriophorum virginicum) fora lining. It covers its nest exter- 
nally with lichens, very much after the fashion of the humming- 
ird. This charming little flycatcher is now one of our most 
confiding, familiar birds. It will be interesting to learn if the 
great crested flycatcher has also concluded to become civilized, 
or is it simply a freak of one pair of birds? 
Audubon says of this species, “‘ The places chosen by the great 
crested flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus Linn.) for its nest are so 
familiar, and the composition of its fabric is so very different from 
that of all others of the genus with which I am acquainted, that 
Perhaps no one, on seeing it for the first time, would imagine it 
to belong toa flycatcher. There is nothing of the elegance of 
Some or the curious texture of others displayed in it. Unlike its 
kinsfolk, it is contented to seek a retreat in the decayed part of a 
tree, of a fence rail, or even of a prostrate log moldering on the 
Stound. I have found it placed in a short stump at the bottom 
of a ravine where the tracks of raccoons were as close together 
VOL, XV,—no, virr, ‘ 42 : : 
