YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER, 381 
that they are better adapted for hopping from branch to branch by their 
tarsus, which is longer proportionally than in other members of the genus. 
Another peculiarity of this species isits note, which is as much entitled 
to the name of song as that of most of the Warblers and many other 
Oscines. On two occassions I have heard peculiar, uninterrupted, soft 
whistling notes, from the top of a tree, so different from those of any bird 
with which I was acquainted, that the birds where shot for identification, 
and proved to be of the present species. Other observers have notice this 
song, which it appears is rarely heard during the migration. Its ordi- 
nary note is described as a weak pu, but I have sometimes heard them 
utter a soft p-teah, ab others @ low but sharp pe-wit. 
That the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher may possibly breed in this state ig 
a supposition warranted by the appearance of the young in August.. 
Comparatively little is known in regard to its breeding habits, in fact, 
until within a couple of years no perfectly satisiactory identifieation of 
the nest and eggs had been made. Mr. H. A. Purdie (Bull. Nutt. Orn. 
Club, iii, 1878, 167) thus describes a nest taken in Maine, and others 
have since been discovered placed on the ground : 
“‘On a collecting trip made by Mr. Ruthven Deane and myself to Houlton, Aroostook 
county, Me., during the second and third weeks in June of this year, we were fortunate 
enough to secure the much-desired nest amd eggs of the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. For 
its possession we are under obligaiions to Robert KR. McLeod, Heq., and to ene of his 
collectors, Mr. James Bradbury, who discovered the nest, beth surrendering all claim to 
the prize, but desirous that a description should be given for the benefit of all initer- 
ested. wh 
“Mr. Bradbury informed us that he had found, on June 15, a nest unknown to him with 
one egg. On the 18th he conducted us to the edge of a wooded swamp, and, pointing to 
the roots of an upturned tree, said the nest was there. We approached cautiously, and 
soon saw the structure and then the sitting bird, which appeared to be sunken in a ball 
of green moss. Our eager eyes were within two feet of her, thus easily identifying the 
species, when she darted off; but, to make doubly sure, Mr. Deane shot her. There was 
no mistake; we at last had a genuine nest and egga of the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. 
A large dwelling it was for so small and trim a bird. Built in and on to the black mud 
clinging to the roots, but two feet from the ground, the bulk of the nest was composed 
of dry moss, while the outside was faced with beautiful fresh green mosses, thickest 
around the rim or parapet. The home of the Bridge Pewee (Sayornis fuscus) was that at 
once suggested. But no mud entered into the actual coxaposition of the nest, though at 
first we thought so, so much was clinging to it when removed. The lining was mainly 
of fine black rootlets, with a few pine needles and grass-stems. The nest gives the fol- 
lowing measurements : depth inside, one and one-half inches; depth outside, four and 
@ quarter inches; circumference inside, seven and a quarter inches. | 
‘‘ The eggs, four in number, were perfectly fresh, ronnded oval in shape, and of a beau- 
tiful rosy-white tint, well spetted with a light reddish shade of brown.” 
