338 THE WOOD PEWEE. 



fastened together with spider's web or silk of cocoons, and 

 most elegantly covered with lichens, the whole appearing 

 from below like a fine gray gnarl — the natural growth of the 

 limb. It is lined with fine rootlets, sometimes mixed with 

 vegetable down, or with fine grasses, including the fringy 

 tops still green in color. This nest bears a great resem- 

 blance to that of the Humming-bird. 



In its inclination to be sociable with man — for it loves to 

 be in the orchard in his immediate neighborhood — in gentle, 

 retiring ways, in sweetness of voice, and in architectural 

 skill, the Wood Pewee is at once the elite and the favorite of 

 its family. 



The eggs, commonly three, late in June or in July, some 

 .70 X .55, are creamy white, with a wreath of rather heavy 

 dark spots intermixed with many which are pale, as if partly 

 effaced. 



Wintering in the tropics, this bird summers in the Eastern 

 United States generally, and in the British Provinces, breed- 

 ing throughout. On the whole, it is rather a late migrant, 

 reaching us about the middle of May, and leaving in Sep- 

 tember. 



Most wonderful is that grouping of characters in natural 

 objects by which they can be classified. How came there 

 to be family resemblances where we do not find that com- 

 munity of descent ever existed ? Why are we constantly 

 detecting plans in the almost endlessly varied structures 

 of natural history ? How is it that a science or the under- 

 standing of nature by means of related forms and functions 

 is possible ? How can we fail to see here the evidences of 

 an intelligent Creator, whose thoughts are thus wrought 

 out into systems and designs ? These things prove that the 

 world neither made itself nor came by chance.. 



In its broadest relationship, the family of birds called 



