Rural School Leaflet 



1129 



we often see the telcj:jrai:>h wires, especially near marshes or bodies of 

 water where there is plenty of insect food, so covered with swallows that 

 it seems impossible for another one to crowd in. When something alarms 

 them, the air is suddenh' filled with thousands of graceful forms darting, 

 diving, and circling in a perfect maze of intricate figures. 



WOOD PEWEE 



Size. — About the size of an English sparrow. 



General color. — Dark gray above; grayish white below. 



Distinctive features. — Its erect posture will place it among the fly-catchers. 

 Its grayish upper parts with 

 the bill pale beneath will dis- 

 tinguish it from the phoebe, 

 but its most distinctive 

 characteristic is its high- 

 pitched whistle, Pee 



If the pewee were a silent ^ 



bird few persons would ever 

 know that he existed, so in- 

 conspicuous is he in his 

 brownish gray plumage high 

 up in the trees. As it is, most 

 persons know him by his 

 sweet, gentle call, but seldom 

 see him. The pewee does not 

 flit about among the leaves as 

 do the more active warblers 

 and vireos, but sits quietly 

 on some dead branch from 

 which he can surv^ey all sides, 

 until some passing insect attracts his attention, when he darts out after 

 it only to return again and resvune his quiet, restful pose. 



The nest of the pewee is even more inconspicuous than the bird, and 

 is as perfect a structure of its kind as one can imagine. Saddled on a 

 horizontal branch, often a dead one, it is neatly woven of grasses and 

 rootlets in a compact and symmetrical form, with no waste of material. 

 The outside is so thickly covered with lichens that the whole nest appears 

 like a knot or an excrescence on the bark. The three or four eggs are 

 creamy or pinkish white with a wreath of chocolate and lavender spots 

 about the larger end. 



Wood pewee 



