WOOD PEWEE 205 



very careful in identifying it ; the distinctly yellowish tinge 

 over the entire under parts distinguishes it. 



Wood Pewee. Contopus virens 

 6.53 



Ad. — Upper parts dark brownish-gray; two white wing-bars ; 

 under parts whitish, the sides washed with dark gray. 



Nest, flattish, saddled on a limb, twenty to forty feet up, exqui- 

 sitely decorated with a green lichen. Eggs, white, with a ring of 

 dark markings about the larger end. 



The Wood Pewee is a rather common summer resident 

 of New York and New England. It arrives in May, and 

 leaves toward the end of September. It is a characteristic 

 bird of open woodland groves or the tall shade-trees of vil- 

 lage streets and plantations. It sits on the ends of dead 

 limbs, usually in the shade of the upper branches, and darts 

 out at passing insects, returning, after its sally, to the same 

 perch or to a neighboring limb. The ordinary drawled pee- 

 a-wee pee-a is to be distinguished, on the one hand, from 

 the pure phee-bee of the Chickadee and the rather hoarse 

 phee'-wi of the Phoebe. Toward the middle of August the 

 full song is rarely heard, and the common note is a shorter 

 pee 1 -a, which must not be confused in northern New Eng- 

 land with the call-note of the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. 

 The bird utters beside a low chit, and about the nest an 

 excited chitter. 



The long-drawn song, when given, distinguishes the Wood 

 Pewee from any of the other Flycatchers, but when the bird 

 is silent it may be confused either with the Phoebe or with 

 the Chebec. It may be distinguished from the former by its 

 smaller size and by its w ell-marked wing-bars ; moreover, 

 it never flirts its tail after the manner of the Phoebe. It is 

 considerably larger than the Chebec, and, when it faces an 

 observer, the middle of its breast shows a light line sepa- 

 rating the darker sides. 



