Nesting of Traill’s Flycatcher at 
Grinnell. 
May 15, 1882.] AND 0(| 
about the rooms through the day, as screens 
at the doors and windows kept them from 
escaping, although they did not attempt to 
get out or fly against the windows as wild 
birds usually do. 
I soon taught them to come at my call and 
feed from my lips, or rest on my breast 
while at my painting, and that recalls an 
amusing incident that happened to one of 
my pets. Being “ ferociously” hungry he 
made a dash at a mass of chrome-yellow on 
my pallette which stuck to his bill, and as 
I was hurrying to finish my day’s work I 
did not notice the mishap until his plain- 
tive peep, and fluttering before my face, 
called my attention. Upon relieving the 
poor little “ Omoline Ortesi" of his super- 
abundance of chrome-yellow, he uttered 
his thanks and made a hurried dart after 
a fly. I have often seen both making quick, 
short turns and not stopping until one or 
the other had made a captive of a house 
fly. They would perch themselves upon 
the rounds of my chair, chirping with a 
squeaky, unmusical note, as if to let me 
know of their presence. 
When their food was gone they would 
poise themselves in the air close to my 
mouth, thrust their bills between my lips, 
then fly to their cup, then back to my 
mouth, and repeat it until I answered their 
demands. J. G. Cooper remarked, while 
watching their flight through the rooms, 
that he had never known of the hummers 
having been taught to gather honey from 
flowers only by the parent bird, and I de- 
cided to make the experiment, gathering 
some scarlet geraniums and verbenas, pla- 
cing them in a vase on the table, holding 
up my brush, I called my pets to me. I 
placed them in front of the flowers. They 
did not take any notice of them. I then 
put a drop of syrup in the centre of each 
blossom, putting the bills on the drops of 
sugar, which they sipped from every flower, 
hovering in the air as we see them out of 
doors ; they did not need a second lesson 
nor did they ever forget their instruction. 
BY I.YNBS JONES, GRINNEI.l., IOWA. 
The nesting of the Empidonaces and Cuntopus 
virens for several years gave me no little trou- 
ble. It was not until I had taken several birds 
with their nests that I could always be sure 
when 1 had a nest of Empidonax trailli and not 
that of some other Flycatcher. 
I have found many nests of this bird and in 
many different positions. One nest was almost 
pensile, placed between twigs of a small bush 
a foot from the ground. Only a small part of 
the nest projected above the horizontal twigs, 
while three or four inches of the loose material 
of which the nest was composed hung below. 
The color, position and material of the nest so 
closely resembled that of the nest of Bell’s Vireo 
that at first sight I thought it was that, but a 
second glance showed me my mistake. This 
was a very compactly made nest of the bark 
tibres of weed stalks, intermingled with a little 
dry grass and a few long hairs from a cow’s tail. 
It was in the midst of a thicket of brush and 
trees, a few rods from a small stream. 
Another nest very much like the last in mate- 
rial was placed on a bough, and was far less 
compactly built. This one was in a small tree 
standing alone and overhanging a stream, and 
was about six feet up. 
Two others I recall whose positions were 
very unusual. The one was in a hedge-row of 
willows, built into the upright forks much as is 
the nest of Lanius or Goldfinch or Yellowbird. 
This is a very slovenly made nest. The other 
was lashed to the side of an upright fork in 
much the same manner as a grain sack is held 
open to facilitate the improving of the grain, i. 
1 e. held on only one side at the top. The latter 
[ one was necessarily quite strongly made, for 
its support was the lashing at the top. The 
composition of both these nests was the same 
as the first, and each contained four eggs. 
While the second form of nest mentioned is 
not rare, yet the first is the common one and 
the composition varies but little ; at least the 
nest is always largely made up of the soft fi- 
brous bark of weed stalks, usually of a neutral 
tint, preferably leaden-gray. And the nest 
complement is three or four eggs, never more 
than four. 
The nest may be found as early as the first of 
June and as late as the middle of July, but only 
one brood is reared. 
While this bird usually frequents the woods 
or willows immediately bordering a stream of 
running water, yet we sometimes find it higli 
up on the hills and far from any stream. 
Q.& O. XII. Dec. 1887 p. Ztl- 
