Sept. 1889.] 
AND OOLOGIST. 
137 
nests, I concluded to find some this year or 
know the reason why. 
Well, I looked and looked and looked, and 
for a long time I did not find any, hut finally 
on May 24, I found a nest some ten feet high, 
hung in the fork at the end of a sweet gum 
tree limb, and secured two of the three fresh 
eggs contained therein (tire third egg struck 
the ground and collapsed.) 
From that time on the difficulty of finding 
nests seemed to vanish, and I found about two- 
thirds of all I looked for. 
Complete sets of the first laying were found 
for about two weeks after the first nest was 
found, and after that I got several second sets 
from pairs whose nests had been previously 
taken. The nests are usually shaped like the 
bowl of a ladle, but not so deep, woven of 
weed stems, grass, and catkins, etc., and sus- 
pended in a fork near the end of a long droop- 
ing limb. The material used is always old and 
good deal as does the ground color of the eggs, 
but the latter is always yellower than that of 
any other small egg I am acquainted 
with. 
The birds seem equally distributed in high- 
land and lowland woods, and the same pairs 
seem to stay in just about the same places each 
year, at least I know of a number of places 
where for several years a pair could be found 
within a few yards of the same spot. 
C. S. Brimley. 
Raleigh, N. C. 
[It is not a little remarkable that the eggs of 
such a common bird as the Acadian Flycatcher 
shouH h— w- r-.. ~~ - 
descr 
Wil 
them 
pidori 
as pu 
Friday. You ask why and you are told some- 
what reluctantly — for it’s an unlucky thing 
to talk about • — that on that day they all go to 
hell and carry a stick to the devil. They don’ t 
have to do it. They are simply “ bad to that.” 
This is one of the most widely distributed of 
any bird fables that I know. I have heard it 
from Maine to Florida and from all classes of 
people and all races, white, black and red. 
The Indians say there are none in the “ Happy 
second lavonre to (logwood. 
The set seems to be three, that being the 
number in ten nests found this year, and no 
undoubted full set of two having been taken. 
The birds stay in the neighborhood of the 
nest while building and setting, but not during 
the four or five days they take to complete a 
nest. When on the nest they leave it so quietly 
and unobtrusively on the approach of man as 
to make it next to impossible to find the nest by 
flushing the bird. Careful search in the neigh- 
borhood of a pair that seem interested or dis- 
turbed by one’s movements seems the best 
and surest way of finding a nest. 
The eggs arc quite pretty, with their yellow- 
ish ground and dark reddish brown spots or 
blotches thinly scattered over the larger end. 
The size and number of the spots varies a 
lie n 
u 9LOGIST. 
a his 
jrst 
urni 
)Oun 
It i 
icini 
n tin 
true 
wig. 
rom 
lsualj 
ieen I 
Tin 
ion, 
jliesti 
used, 
some 
gethe: 
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and 
quent. 
137 
good deal as does the ground color of the eggs, 
but the latter is always yellower than that of 
any other small egg I am acquainted 
with. 
The bh-ds seem equally distributed in high- 
land and lowland woods, and the same pairs 
seem to stay just about the same places each 
year, at least I know of a number of places 
where for several years a pair could be found 
within a fe^v yards of the same spot. 
C. S. Brimley. 
Raleigh, N. 0. 
[It is not a little remarkable that the eggs of 
such a common bird as the Acadian Flycatcher 
should have Iteen for so many years incorrectly 
described. 
Wilson and Audubon evidently confounded 
them with eggsofthe Least Flycatcher (Em- 
beneatli it and see the eggs in it through the 
bottom. 
The favorite situation is in a damp woods, 
near a stream of water, and sometimes over- 
hanging it. Occasionally the edge of a wood 
is chosen for building. 
When the nest is approached the birds 
will usually betray its location by their 
noisiness. 
The earliest date at which fresh eggs were 
found near Philadelphia was May 29, and the 
latest, June 30, so it is very probable that two 
broods are raised in a season. 
The Oologist. 1595' Acadian Flycatcher. By J. W. Jacobs. Ibid., p. 13.— Recoai^^gn^' J o D ’ 
of fourteen sets of eggs taken at Waynesburg, Penn[sylvani]a. , in 18S7. '-'•P. 
