90 WOOD PEWEE 



about the farm and it should receive every en- 

 couragement and be protected from cats and 

 other marauders, for it will repay such care a 

 hundred fold." 



Wood Pewee : Contopus virens. 



Upper parts blackish brown ; under parts whitish, washed with 

 olive ; wing- bars whitish ; lower mandible pale brown or yel- 

 lowish. Length, about 6^ inches. 



Geographic Distribution. — Eastern North America ; breeds 

 from Florida to Newfoundland ; winters in Central and South 

 America. 



In Ohio it is almost exceptional to find an 

 Orchard without its pair of Wood Pewees, Mr. H. 

 C. Oberholser says ; and in Farmington, Connec- 

 ticut, on the grounds of Miss Porter's school and 

 also on the village streets, one of the commonest 

 bird notes is the clear, plaintive pee -ali-icee of the 

 sweet- voiced Flycatcher. Once heard and listened 

 to, the note will never be forgotten. Some birds' 

 songs, like the ordinary one of the Mockingbird, 

 impress you as matters of execution and at times 

 of gossip, but the minor call of the Wood Pewee 

 seems the simple, sincere utterance of the heart. 

 Of course the Pewee, being mortal, is not always 

 in poetic mood, and in its commonplace moments 

 it has a rapid, twittering twit'-ter-rah, given with 

 quivering wiugs and tail. Mrs. Miller says it 

 has also a low, pleasing song. 



The voice of the Wood Pewee is recognized 

 quickly, but the bird itself is a little hard to find 



