WOOD PEWEE. 285 



Mr, Cooper, by letter, has obligingly informed me, that Prince 

 Musignano, thinks this bird may be described by Pennant. His 

 dusliy Flycatcher, is evidently, our Phebe. the M. atra of Gmelin. 

 M.fusca does not essentially differ from that species, either accord- 

 ing to Catesby's bad figure, or Brisson's exact description ; in both au- 

 thors the bill is black, and the tail long, circumstances wanting in 

 our bird. I have therefore dedicated it to our friend who tells ine 

 that the appropriate name we had mutually thought of, M- inornata^ 

 is already given to the East India species^, 



WOOD PEWEE. 



(Muscicajya virens, Lix. M. rapax, Wilsox, ii. p. 81. pi. 13. fig. 5. 



Philad. Museum, No. 6G60.) 

 Sp. Charact. — Dusky brownish-olive, beneath pale yellowish ; bill 



black, beneath dilate yellow; 2d primary longest; 1st much 



shorter than the 3d and longer than the 6th. 



This species has much the appeai*ance of the Common 

 Pewee, or Phebe, but difTers essentially by its note and 

 habits. The Wood Pevvee appears to winter south of the 

 United States, and scarcely arrives in Pennsylvania or 

 New England before the middle of May ; its migrations, 

 in all probability, extend to Canada. It is a solitary 

 species, frequenting gloomy forests, and dark orchards, 

 where watching on some dead and projecting branch for 

 its insect prey, it sweeps at intervals amidst the shade, and 

 the occasional snapping of its bill announces the success 

 of its flight. It then again alights as before, sometimes ut- 

 tering a sort of gratulatory low twitter, accompanied by a 

 quivering of the wings and tail, and in the lapse of its em- 

 ployment, in a feeble, sighing tone, often cries pee-ivee or 

 pee-e, and sometimes pe-wee petoittitee or petoittee pe-ioee. 

 This note is continued often till quite late in the evening, 

 at which time many of the insect brood and moths are 

 abundant. Most of these birds, indeed, appear capable 

 of collecting their food by the feeblest light, the only 



