264 BIRDS OF ONTARIO. 



CONTOPUS VTREN8 (Lixx.). 

 189. Wood Pewee. (461) 



Olivaceous -brown, rathei- darker on the liead ; l)elow, with the sides washed 

 with a paler shade of the same nearly or quite across the breast ; the tliroat and 

 lielly, whitish, more or less tinged witli dull yellowish ; under tail coverts, the 

 same, usually streaked with dusky ; tail and wings, blackish, the former 

 lumiarked, the inner cjuills edged and the coverts tii)ped with wiiitish ; feet and 

 upper mandible, l)Iack ; under mamlible, usually yellow, sometimes dusky. 

 Hpring specimens are purer olivaceous. Karly fall birds are biigliter yellow 

 below ; in summer, l)efore the now worn feathers are renewed, (juite brown and 

 dingy-whitish. Very young birds have the wing-bars and pale edging of quills 

 tinged with rusty, the feathers of tlie upper parts skirted, and the lower 

 phunage tinged witli the same ; but in any ])lumage the species may be known 

 from all the birds of the following genus by these dimensions. Length, fi-()i ; 

 wing, 'ili-.H ; tail, '2i-S; tarsus, about i, not longer than tlie hi//. 



H.MJ. — Eastern Xortli America to the Plain.s, and from Soutlu^in (Jana<la 

 southward. 



Nest, composed of bark fibre, rootlets and grass, finished with lichens ; on 

 the outside it is compact and firm round the edge, but flat in form, and rather 

 loose in the bottom. It is sometimes saddled on a bough, more fi'eqnently 

 placed on the fork of a twig ten or twelve feet oi- more from tlie ground. 



Eggs, three or foui-, ci'eamy-white, blotched and varicgate<l at the laigcr 

 end with reddish-brown and lilac -gray. 



This species reseinl)les the Pli(i'l)e in jippciiraiicc, l)iit is smaller, 

 and has an erect, hawk-like attitude, wlicii seen perclied on a dead 

 twig on the outer limb of a tree. It is a late comer, being seldom 

 seen before the middle of May, after which its prolonged, melancholy 

 notes may be heard alike in the woods and orchards till the end of 

 August, when the birds move south. To liuman ears, the notes of the 

 male appear to be the outpourings of settled soi-row, l)ut to liifi mate 

 the impressions conveyed may be very dirterent. 



In the breeding season, it is generally distributed throughout 

 Ontario, and a few are found in Manitoba. 



Its visit here is comparatively sliort, for it does not appeal- till the 

 middle of May, and leaves again eai-ly in iSejitember. Its food 

 consists chieflv of insects, caui,dit wliih' on tlie wing. 



