346 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



rock, only a few feet from the ground. It measured four and a half inches 

 in diameter and tliree in height. The cavity was nearly three inches wide 

 and one and a lialf ih'v\>. Its base was constructed of layers of fine leaves, 

 strips of hark, roots of plants, and other miscellaneous materials. The 

 great mass of the nest itself was made up of fine mosses closely interwoven, 

 and strengthened by an intermixture of firmer plant fibres. Tlic whole was 

 carefully and softly lined with strips of the inner bark of variotis deciduous 

 shrubs, fine roots, and finer grasses. Tlie semicircular ne.sts are usually 

 jilaced out of reach of the weather under some projecting shelter. 



Wilson states that they often nest in eaves, and occasionally in an open 

 well, five or six feet down, among the interstices of the side-walls. Xuttall 

 has known them to nest in an empty kitchen. 



Tlieir attachment to a locality, when once chosen, is remarkable, and is 

 often persevered in imder the most discouraging circumstances. In one in- 

 stance, Nuttall states that a nest was built in the boathouse at Fresh Pond, 

 Cambridge, — a place so common as to be almost a thoroughfare. Although 

 with its young brood this nest was torn down by ruffian hands, the female 

 immediately built a new one in the same spot, and laid five additional eggs. 

 Tliis was lined with the silvery shreds of a manilla rope, taken from the 

 loft over the boathouse. 



Besides tlie cornmon call-note, fi-om ^^■llich these birds derive their name, 

 they have, during the love-season, a low twittering sf)ng witli wliich they 

 entertain their mates, but which is heard only when the binls are in com- 

 pany, and for a brief season. 



The flight of the Pewee is an alternation of soaring and a succe.ssion of 

 light fluttering motions, more rapid when pursuing its prey than in its 

 ordinary movements. Its crest is usually erected when it is in motion, or on 

 the lookout for insects. 



Mr. Audubon found these birds in full song in Florida during the winter, 

 and as li\'ely as in spring, but met with none breeding south of Charleston. 

 They leave Louisiana in Februnry, and return to it in October. Tliey feed 

 largely on berries, especially during tlie winter, and !Mr. j\Iaynard found 

 some in tlie spring of 1868 with hawtliorn berries in their stomachs. 



The eggs of the Pewee measure .80 of an inch in length and .GO in breadth. 

 They are of a rounded oval sliajie, pointed at one end and much larger at the 

 other. Their ground-color is a pure bright white, and generally unspotted ; 

 lint a certain proportion, one set in every five or six, is distinctly marked 

 with reddish-brown dots at the larger end. 



