The Nesting of the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (Empidonax fla- 
viventris). — On Monday, June 10, 1878, while collecting in company with 
Mr. R. F. Pearsall on the island of Grand Menan, I flushed a Yellow- 
* bellied Flycatcher, which seemed to come from directly under my feet. 
The locality was a good-sized hummock of moss, in swampy ground at 
the edge of some low woods. For some time I was unable to find any 
signs of a nest, hut finally I discovered a small hole one and a half 
inches in diameter in the side of the hummock, and on enlarging this 
opening the nest, with four eggs, lay before me. The bird, which had all 
the time been hopping around within a few feet of our heads, was at once 
shot. The cavity extended in about two inches, was about four inches in 
1 depth, and was lined with a very few grasses, black hair-like roots, and 
skins of berries. The eggs, four in number, are white, with a very delicate 
creamy tint, which differs in its intensity in the different specimens, and 
are spotted, mostly at the larger end, with a few dots and blotches of a 
light reddish shade. 
As far as I can learn, there are several nests of this bird in different 
collections, the identities of most if not all of which are disputed. The 
description m Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway’s work agrees very well with 
nests of the Traills’ Flycatcher which I have seen, but is totally different 
from that of the nest now before me, and so much so that, although I am 
well aware of the great differences existing in the nesting habits of birds 
of the same species, yet I cannot believe them to extend as far as this. 
As we were leaving Grand Menan, a nest was brought to us which I 
have no doubt is of the same species, as the position and construction 
which are, to say the least, peculiar, as well as the eggs, correspond ex- 
actly ; also the finder’s description of the bird. — S. D. Osborne Brook- 
lyn, N. Y. Bull N.O.O. 3, Oct., 1878, p. /f <j . 
