LELECAUDUBON BULLETIN 19 
cold and I think it would not have spoiled in two or three weeks.) I 
visited the nest almost daily until June 3. The bird left it on each occasion 
but as the days wore on she seemed less concerned and, at the last, flew 
off without any show of anxiety. Days later I found, near the site and in 
the wood road, fragments of Red-shouldered Hawk’s eggs. An examination 
showed that they had never contained embryos. Upon their abandonment 
Crows had doubtless carried them off and eaten them where I found the 
shells. Probably they were infertile—I never saw but one bird of the 
species in the neighborhood. At any rate the old bird had spent from six 
to eight weeks trying to hatch them. 
About the end of the first week in June, in this part of Michigan, the 
Crested Flycatcher has begun incubation. Hence, when I saw a pair build- 
ing on the 12th of that month I planned to visit the nest later to note 
the conditions of a delayed or, perhaps, a second nesting. Ten days later | 
climbed the small, dead tamarack, which was broken off at the top, and 
found there, not the usual mass of feathers, sticks, grasses, etc.—not even 
a snakeskin—but only, at the bottom of the cavity, a small mat of dry 
pine needles on which lay but three eggs, instead of the usual five or' six. 
Many of the small birds live along the lake shore and all about the 
cottages their nests are found. But as soon as the young leave the nest 
the families go back into the woods. With the Phoebe a second nesting 
is the rule and, soon after the first of June, when the first brood has been 
reared and left to its own resources, our birds at the lake return to the 
old nest under the eaves and use it again. 
The crotch of a small white oak, close to our doorstep, was chosen 
by a Least Flycatcher as the site of its home. The bird was noticed first on 
May 16 carrying nest material. Its work seemed to be completed some days 
before May 25 when it was first occupied. Whether all the eggs had been 
laid by that time I don’t know; nor do I know when the young first 
appeared. Whatever the date of their advent they did not venture abroad 
until the afternoon of June 25th or the morning of the 26th. At least 40 
days elapsed from the beginning of the nest to the date of its abandonment. 
Such nests as this small, inconspicuous one of the Least Flycatcher, 
the Phoebe’s, close under the eaves, and, of course, the Orioles’ and 
Woodpeckers’, were of the few not robbed by Crows and Grackles. One 
day I caught a Crow in the act. I saw him “edging along” from one tree te 
another in the direction of a Robin’s nest, in an oak on the far side of a 
neighboring cottage. I ran, in my sneakers, around the corner of the 
building just in time to see the miscreant lift an egg and bear it away, 
grasping it with its long diameter in a vertical position. 
The Orioles know how to combat the Grackles. When one ap- 
peared near an Oriole’s nest, four or five ““Hangbirds” joined forces and 
drove the prowler away. There had always been, during my years at the 
lake, one or two pairs of Orioles; but during my four years’ absence, the 
number had significantly increased. “Five occupied nests were located in 
