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Nesting of the Great-crested Fly- 
catcher in Ontario Co., N. Y. 
Mr. C. H. Wilder, in his “County Natural 
History Notes” ( Ontario County Journal), says 
of this bird ( Myiarchus crinitus): “Summer 
resident. Common. Breeds.” Now at the 
time his notes were published (June, 1887), I 
was not very familiar with the habits of this 
species, although I had seen one or two nests, 
but during the seasons of 1887, 1888 and 1889, 
I have made special observations, and now 
look upon the bird as one of our more common 
and most conspicuous summer residents. 
It is very unusual for me to enter any large 
wood without seeing or hearing one or more 
of them. They usually keep well up in the 
tops of the trees, but their loud spirited note 
attracts the attention of the most casual 
observer. 
Although this bird is more often heard in 
the depths of the forest, the nest is to be 
looked for in some old orchard where the 
trunks are hollow or decayed, and the boughs 
have been broken off by stones. If upon near- 
ing one of these “old-timers” you hear the 
cry of the Great-crest, you may rest assured 
that your search will be rewarded with one of 
the most beautiful sets of eggs which will ever 
grace your cabinet. 
My experience in three cases has taught me 
that the birds return to the same nest in alter- 
nate years. The nest is always placed in a 
hollow, horizontal limb; usually in one which 
has been broken off and decayed back two or 
three feet into the limb. Ten nests examined 
by me were placed in such situations. The 
nest is composed of dried grass lined with 
feathers, and in nine cases out of ten contains 
a piece of snake-skin. 
My three sets consist respectively of four, 
five, and six eggs, of which the one with six is 
by far the most beautiful. The eggs in this 
set average larger than those in the other two. 
They measure: ,90x.70; .94x.72; ,85x.65; 
Odd Nesting-site of a Great-crested Flycatcher.— In 1875, in either the 
latter part of May or early in June, at Chesnut Hill, a suburb of Philadel- 
phia, but about eight miles northwest of the city proper, a pair of Great- 
crested Flycatchers ( Myiarchus crinitus) made three attempts to build a 
nest in the gutter pipe of an inhabited house. The house was of stone, 
with a ‘French’ roof covered with slate. The pipe was oi tin and opened 
out of the gutter about six feet from a window of a boy’s room. It was 
bent at the top at an angle of about 30° from the perpendicular, and at 
this bend the birds endeavored to lodge their nest. Each time the ma- 
terials were washed down by rain, and the day after the thiid flood the 
birds abandoned the locality. There was not a tree on the place ovei ten 
years old, and I have never, before or since, known a Great-crested Fly- 
catcher to establish itself within a mile of the house in question. The 
house was partly covered with vines, but there were none above or within 
five feet of the junction of gutter and pipe.— Frank R. Welsh, Phila- 
delphia, Pa. A.' tt fe ) I, Oct., 1884. p. ^ Zf f - 
Large Sets of Eggs. 
Mr. F. L. Farley, of St. Thomas, Ontario, re- 
ports finding, in 1885, twenty-one eggs of the 
Great C rested Flycatcher ( Myiarchus crinitus,) in 
a single nest, in a hole in an apple tree. The 
eggs were of five different sizes and he thinks that 
several females must have deposited them. 
W.1 «P.Xl.bf+- /«*•/*- AW' 
Set II. Four eggs of the Great Crested Fly- 
catcher, {Myiarchus crinitus). All of these 
have a delicate creamy ground color a trifle 
darker than found in fresh eggs of the Acadian 
Flycatcher, (Empidonax acadicus) before they 
are blown. In Nos. 1 and 2 the markings are 
all at the larger end forming a solid color, the 
! ground color being entirely hidden. Nos. 3 
and 4 have also the larger end covered, being 
! sparingly marked with fine short dashes cover- 
ing about one half the eggs, the smaller ends 
being entirely plain. „ , . „„ 
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