S8 
tup: condor 
Vol. XIII 
unobstructed. Though this crotch was about twenty feet from the foot of the tree, 
the bank rising steeply from the stream passed not far from the nesting site. On 
this sloping bank my companion and myself were able to rest and watch every 
move of the birds. 
The nest was darker than the tree trunk but matched the shadow in the 
crotch. It was made entirely of fine plant fibers. The location of the nest re- 
minded me of one of the Western Gnatcatcher which I once watched which was 
built on the side of a sycamore tree in much the same way, the chief difference 
being that in the latter case the supports were new leafy shoots. 
It was about 8:40 when we sat down to watch these little flycatchers. At that 
time both birds fed, one having a moth in its bill which was fed to several young. 
After feeding, the female sat on a near-by limb and guarded. The male fed four 
times in six minutes, resting on the edge of the nest one-half minute after the last 
Fig. 3,?. nest of the western flycatcher 
feeding. As the bird fed we could just see tiny bills above the nest. There seemed to 
be three of them. 
For the next eight minutes the female fed, making three trips and resting on 
the edge of the nest a short time. Then the male fed three times, then for thirteen 
minutes both birds fed in all seven times, then they seemed to divide the labor 
again, the female feeding for a time, then the male doing all the feeding. Perhaps 
I am wrong in this conclusion, but in the three hours and forty minutes that we 
watched them, I came to the conclusion that it was their way to take turn about in 
the feeding. Sometimes the watching bird would be seen perched in a tree not far 
away: at other times it was out of sight. During the three hours and forty 
minutes the young were fed sixtj^-three times, the female feeding thirty-three 
times to the male’s thirty, the shortest interval being one minute, the longest ten 
and one-half minutes. 
