226 
GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHER. 
bees ; but wants the courage and magnanimity of the King 
Bird. He arrives in Pennsylvania early in May, and builds 
his nest in a hollow tree, deserted by the Blue Bird or Wood- 
pecker. The materials of which this is formed are scanty, and 
rather novel. One of these nests, now before me, is formed 
of a little loose hay, feathers of the Guinea fowl, hogs’ bristles, 
pieces of cast snake skins, and dogs’ hair. Snake skins with 
this bird appear to be an indispensable article, for I have never 
yet found one of his nests without this material forming a part 
of it.* Whether he surrounds his nest with this by way of 
terrorem , to prevent other birds or animals from entering ; or 
whether it be that he finds its silky softness suitable for his 
young, is uncertain ; the fact, however, is notorious. The 
female lays four eggs of a dull cream colour, thickly scratched 
with purple lines of various tints as if done with a pen : See 
%• -• 
This species is eight inches and a half long, and thirteen 
inches in extent ; the upper parts are of a dull greenish olive ; 
the feathers on the head are pointed, centred with dark brown, 
ragged at the sides, and form a kind of blowzy crest ; the 
throat, and upper parts of the breast, delicate ash ; rest of the 
lower parts, a sulphur yellow ; the wing-coverts are pale drab, 
crossed with two bars of dull white ; the primaries are of a 
bright ferruginous, or sorrel colour ; the tail is slightly forked, 
its interior vanes of the same bright ferruginous as the prima- 
ries; the bill is blackish, very much like that of the King 
Bird, furnished also with bristles ; the eye is hazel ; legs and 
feet, bluish black. The female can scarcely be distinguished, 
by its colours, from the male. 
This bird also, feeds on berries towards the end of summer, 
particularly on huckle-berries, which, during the time they 
last, seem to form the chief sustenance of the young birds. I 
* As I have mentioned at page 143, this forms the lining to the nests of other 
birds also ; and, as the number of snakes is considerable in those uncultivated 
and woody countries, their castings may form a more frequent substitute than 
is generally supposed, — Ed. 
