Sept. 1889.] 
AND OOLOGIST. 
137 
# 
Nesting of the Acadian Flycatcher at 
Raleigh, N. C. 
Having had considerable success with the 
Acadian Flycatcher ( Empidonax acadicus) I 
thought it might interest some of the readers 
of the O. & O. to hear my experiences. Not 
having done much in finding sets of this bird 
heretofore, although I had seen bushels of old 
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, but 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 (the 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 
brown, and catkins or pine straws are usually 
left hanging from the nest, and loose material 
is often attached to the side of the nest, mak- 
ing it look at a casual glance very much like a 
collection of trash such as often sticks in an 
old last year’s web of the tent caterpillar. 
In about half the nests the bottom is thin 
enough to see the eggs through, so that one 
can tell when to take them. The nest however 
is quite strong, although so thin, and in spite 
of being so shallow, the eggs will not roll out 
unless the nest is tipped considerably over. 
The nests are placed from seven to fifteen feet 
high, sometimes more, the majority being 
nine to ten feet in height. About half of them 
are placed in small dogwoods, the balance be- 
ing in post oak, water oak, sweet gum, birch 
and tulip poplar trees, sweet gum being 
second favorite to dogwood. 
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 are 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 
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 
should have been for so many years incorrectly 
described. 
Wilson and Audubon evidently confounded 
them with eggs of the Least Flycatcher ( Em- 
pidonax minimus), as they both described them 
as pure white and unmarked, and stated that 
the number of eggs laid was from four to six. 
It was not until 1867 that Mr. E. A. Samuels, 
in his Ornithology and Oology of New England, 
first described them correctly from specimens 
furnished to him by me, and taken in Chester 
County, Pennsylvania. 
It probably breeds more abundantly in the 
vicinity of Philadelphia than anywhere else. 
In that locality the nest is usually a fragile 
structure, placed in a sapling, near the end of a 
twig. The height from the ground varies 
from five to twenty-five feet, but the nest is 
usually found at an elevation from five to fif- 
teen feet. 
The nest varies considerably in its construc- 
tion, but is most commonly composed of 
chestnut blossoms, though often ragweed is 
used. It is sometimes lined with grass, and 
some of the nests are quite neatly put to- 
gether, while others have pieces of ragweed 
hanging down from the sides of the structure, 
and giving it a slovenly appearance. Fre- 
quently it is so thin that one can stand 
beneath 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. 
138 ORNITH 
The number of eggs laid is usually three, 
although sometimes only two, and it is not un- 
usual to find two well incubated eggs, thus 
proving that no more would have been laid. I 
have never found four eggs in one nest, and 
have never seen or heard of any authentic set 
of that number. 
The Cowbird does not often trouble this 
species, as it is unusual to find their eggs in 
nests of the Acadian. 
The ground color of the eggs varies from a 
light to a dark cream, spotted usually at the 
larger end, with different shades of reddish- 
brown and chestnut. In some specimens the 
spots are smaller and are scattered sparingly 
all over the surface, while in others (and this is 
the typical marking) the spots are larger, and 
all near the larger end. — P. A.] 
The Oologist. 1595' Acadian Flycatcher. By J. W. Jacobs. Ibid . , p. i 3 ._ Recofch^c^]-}' 
of fourteen sets of eggs taken at Waynesburg, Penn[sylvani]a., in 1 SS 7 . ^ h>. p.kV. 
