1881.] The Great Crested Flycatcher. 603 
top of the house and screaming for his mate. She comes and 
merely looks in and finds the female on the nest and immediately 
flies away, but the male stays awhile and continues to call, evi- 
dently thinking that she did not half look at the house, but she 
does not return, and as he flies away, the bluebird who was 
watching him at a safe distance, now courayeously flies after him 
and then returns to his mate who meets him at the door, and they 
chatter over the matter in their low, sweet way, he apparently 
telling her how he has driven the hateful fellow away! 
The flycatchers next visit a little house fastened to the railing 
of an upper piazza, but this too is occupied by a family of blue- 
birds, and they leave them unmolested. At last madam flycatcher 
chooses the finest establishment on the premises—a three-storied 
octagon house surmounted with a cupola and spire, with a 
weather vane and ball attached to the spire. The house is fas- 
tened to the top of the stable, and was originally intended for the 
Martins, but a pair of bluebirds were the first to occupy it, and 
they have held it for several years past, allowing no other bird to 
get possession; but they do not try to drive the flycatchers, who 
finally select the cupola which they find empty. 
They are beyond my reach but they do not try to prevent my 
seeing the material which the female carries to the house, On 
the contrary they seem wholly indifferent to my presence, much 
More so than our familiar bluebird. 
The male always precedes his mate and heralds her approach 
with a clamorous noise. He stations himself on the ball or 
Weather vane above the cupola, and seems to be giving directions 
to his partner in a very loud voice, while she works with a per- 
verse stick that she cannot get through the door. 
She selects a stick longer than the door, and stupidly holds it 
about midway and tries to force it through. If it is too stout to 
bend or break, she works long and laboriously, while her partner 
looks on and screams, At last, discouraged with the hopeless 
endeavor, she comes to the ground and selects another. She 
Proceeds in this way for several hours, Finally she learns to put 
the stick end first through the door, and now the work progresses 
Tapidly, 
They are gone longer than usual, so long that I begin to fear 
_ they have given up their elegant site, but in a few hours I again 
hear the harsh voice of the male, and on looking up, see the 
