WESTERN BIRDS Pewee 



GENUS MYIOCHANES : WOOD PEWEE. 



Wood Pewee : Myiochanes virens. 

 FAMILY— FLYCATCHERS. 



The Wood Pewee is somewhat smaller than the 

 Phoebe, being about six and one-half inches long, and 

 is a summer resident, only, in the United States. It 

 breeds from above our northern border to southern Texas 

 and central Florida, west to eastern Nebraska. 



To me it is the least attractive, in coloring, of any 

 of the flycatchers, being a dark olive-brown above with 

 wings and tail brownest; having a whitish breast which 

 is washed with gray on sides, and two, not always dis- 

 tinctly marked, light wing bars. 



This modest little bird is a dweller of wooded places, 

 being found not only in the forests but coming also to 

 the orchards, especially if they be old deserted ones that 

 are rich in insects. Because of its habit of building in 

 these places it is known in some localities as the "Orchard 

 Phoebe." Seemingly it has no fear of man for it often 

 builds in the village shade trees, and forages in the 

 gardens. 



Wilson compares this bird to the Phoebe which, he 

 says, it resembles so much in form and plumage as 

 scarcely to be distinguished from it, while being entirely 

 different in manners, mode of building, etc. "The Phoebe 

 is among the first birds that visit us in the spring, build- 

 ing in caves and under arches of bridges; while the Wood 

 Pewee is among the latest of the summer birds, seldom 

 arriving before the 12th or 15th of May; frequenting 

 the shadiest high timbered woods, where there is little 

 underwood, and abundance of dead twigs and branches 

 shooting across the gloom, generally in low situations; 

 builds its nest on the upper side of a limb or branch, 



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