WESTERN BIRDS Phoobe 



young are similar but more gray and have white wing 

 bars and more white on tail. 



As is the custom with most members of this family, 

 the head feathers are at times raised, giving a big-headed 

 appearance. A row of young Phoebes perched on a wire 

 side by side, in their immaculate black-and-white cos- 

 tume, with the expansion of white breast, and their digni- 

 fied attitude, always reminds me of a row of courtly 

 gentlemen in swallow-tailed coats. 



The Black Phoebe is a resident in California, coming 

 about the homes in rain or shine, heat or cold. His com- 

 mon call is a rather nasal phoeb. Sometimes, more often 

 early in the morning, he deigns to call his name. It is, 

 however, quite unlike that of his eastern cousin, the 

 phoe-be, phoe-be being given in a quick, jerky way as 

 if he feared that some one might discover that he bore 

 a woman's name. Like the eastern bird it is fond of 

 water and may be seen along streams, reservoirs, and wet 

 places, where it darts out after unsuspecting insects, or 

 sits on some look-out jerking its long, expressive tail 

 and giving its unmusical notes. From the earliest peep 

 of dawn until almost dark, the birds glean insects; flies 

 constituting their most regular article of diet. These 

 birds begin nesting operations as early as February and 

 are kept busy most of the summer, since three broods are 

 sometimes raised. The male takes charge of the nest- 

 lings after they leave the nest, while the female repairs 

 the old home and broods more eggs. They love to come 

 to the same nesting-site, the female patching up the old 

 nest. I have never seen the male help with the nest- 

 building, brood the eggs, or feed the female, she leaving 

 the nest when hungry. 



Mrs. Elizabeth Grinnell, in her "Stories of Our West- 

 ern Birds," tell an interesting story of a pair of Phoebes 

 that had used the same nest on her barn four times. 

 Once when the bird was late in relining the nest, the 



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