Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored 
The fact that gives the great-crested flycatcher a unique in- 
terest among all North American birds is that it invariably lines 
its nest with snake-skins if one can be had. Science would 
scarcely be worth the studying if it did not set our imaginations 
to work delving for plausible reasons for Nature’s strange doings. 
Most of us will doubtless agree with Wilson (who made a special 
study of these interesting nests and never found a single one 
without cast snake-skins in it, even in districts where snakes 
were so rare they were supposed not to exist at all), that the 
lining was chosen to terrorize all intruders. The scientific 
mind that is unwilling to dismiss any detail of Nature’s work as 
merely arbitrary and haphazard, is greatly exercised over the 
reason for the existence of crests on birds. But, surely, may not 
the sight of snake-skins that first greet the eyes of the fledgling 
flycatchers as they emerge from the shell be a good and sufficient 
reason why the feathers on their little heads should stand on 
end? “In the absence of a snake-skin, I have found an onion 
skin and shad scales in the nest,” says John Burroughs, who calls 
this bird “the wild Irishman of the flycatchers.” 
Olive-sided Flycatcher 
( Contopus borealis ) Flycatcher family 
Length —7 to 7. 5 inches. About an inch longer than the English 
sparrow. 
Male and Female — Dusky olive or grayish brown above; head 
darkest. Wings and tail blackish brown, the former some- 
times, but not always, margined and tipped with dusky 
white. Throat yellowish white ; other under parts slightly 
lighter shade than above. Olive-gray on sides. A tuft of 
yellowish-white, downy feathers on flanks. Bristles at base 
of bill. 
Range — From Labrador to Panama. Winters in the tropics. 
Nests usually north of United States, but it also breeds in the 
Catskills. 
Migrations — May. September. Resident only in northern part 
of its range. 
Only in the migrations may people south of Massachusetts 
hope to see this flycatcher, which can be distinguished from the 
rest of its kin by the darker under parts, and by the fluffy, yel- 
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