TYEANNIDiE — THE FLYCATCHERS. 



345 



resident in the State during the summer months, but believes the "reat 

 majority go fartlier north to breed. 



In Western Maine it is a common summer \asitant, breeding tliere in con- 

 siderable numbers. Professor Verrill states that it is t'retj^ueutly seen there 

 the first of March, becoming quite common by the first of April. It is also 

 a summer visitant about Calais, where it breeds, but is rather rare. At 

 Hamilton, Canada, Mr. McIhM'aith reports it as a common summer resident, 

 arriving about April 15. 



In Pennsylvania this sijecies arrives among tlie earliest spring visitants, 

 sometimes as early as the first week in jNIarch, and continues in that region 

 until late in October. Wilson lias seen specimens as late as the 12th of 

 November. He states that in the month of February he met with them 

 feeding on the smilax berries in tlie low, swampy woods of North and South 

 Carolina. They were already clianting tlieir simple, plaintive notes. In 

 Massacliusetts they usually arrive from tlie lotli to the 25th of March. 

 In the warm spring of 1870 they were ah-eady abundant by the 10th. 

 They were nesting early in April, and their first brood was ready to fly by 

 the middle of May. They have two broods in a season, and occasionally 

 perliaps three, as I have known fresh eggs in the middle of August. They 

 leave late in October, unless the season be unusually open, when a few linger 

 into November. 



Their well-known and monotonous, though not unpleasing, note of |je-wee, 

 or, as some hear it, phce-hee, is uttered with more force and frequency in 

 early spring than later in the season, though they repeat the note throughout 

 their residence north. It usually has some favorite situation, in which it 

 remains all the morning, watching for insects and continually repeating its 

 simple song. As he sits, he occasionally flirts his tail and darts out after 

 each passing insect, always returning to the same twig. 



This species is attracted both to the vicinity of water and to the neighbor- 

 hood of dwellings, probably for the same reason, — the abundance of insects in 

 either situation. They are a familiar, confiding, and gentle bird, attached 

 to localities, and returning to them year after year. They build in sheltered 

 situations, as under a bridge, under a projecting rock, in the porches of 

 houses, and in similar situations. I have known them to build on a small 

 shelf in the porch of a dwelling ; against the wall of a railroad-station, with- 

 in reach of the passengers ; and under a projecting window-sill, in full xiew 

 of the family, entirely unmoved by the presence of the latter at meal- 

 time. 



Their nests are constructed of small pellets of mud, placed in layers one 

 above the other, in semicircular form, covered with mosses, and warmly lined 

 with fine straw and feathers. AVhen the nest is placed on a flat surface, — 

 a shelf or a projecting rock, — it is circular in form, and mud is not made 

 use of. A nest of this description, taken by Mr. Vickary in Lynn, and con- 

 taining five eggs, was constructed on a ledge, protected by an overhanging 



VOL. II. 44 



