PEWIT FLYCATCHER, OR PHCEBE. 281 



our Phebes immediately commenced a new fabric, and 

 laid 5 additional eggs in the same place with the first ; 

 and, in haste to finish their habitation, they had lined it 

 with the silvery shreds of a Manilla rope, which they 

 had discovered in the contiguous loft over the boat- 

 house. For several previous seasons they had taken up 

 their abode in this vicinity, and seemed unwilling to re- 

 move from the neighbourhood they had once chosen in 

 spite of the most untoward circumstances. 



Towards the time of their departure for the south, 

 which is about the middle of October, they are silent, and 

 previously utter their notes more seldom, as if mourning 

 the decay of nature, and anticipating the approaching 

 famine which now urges their migration. In Massachu- 

 setts the Phebe rarely raises more than a single brood in 

 the season, unless, as in the instance related, they have 

 had the misfortune to lose the first hatch. The young, 

 dispersed through the woods in small numbers, may now 

 and then be heard to the close of September, exercising 

 their feeble voices in a guttural phehe. But the old birds 

 are almost wholly silent, or but little heard, as they flit tim- 

 idly through the woods, when once released from the cares 

 of rearing their infant brood ; so that here the Phebe's 

 note is almost a concomitant of spring and the mildest 

 opening of summer ; it is, indeed, much more vigorous in 

 April and May than at any succeeding period. 



The Pewee is 7 inches in length, and 9^ in alar extent. Above 

 dark dusky olive ; the head brownish black, with an erectile crested 

 cap, like all the rest of this North American family of Flycatchers, 

 with the exception of the Redstart (M. ruticilla). Wings and tail 

 dusky, approaching to black, the former edged on every feather with 

 yollowish white, the latter forked. Below pale whitish yellow, bright- 

 er on the abdomen. Legs and hill wholly black. Iris hazel. The 

 sexes almost entirely similar. 



24* 



