LAND BIRDS. 401 



182. Wood Pewee. Myiochanes virens (Linn.). (461) 



Synonyms: Pewee Flycatcher, Pewee.— Muscicapa virens, Linn., 1766. — Muscicapa 

 querula, Vieill. — Muscicapa rapax, Wilson. — Tyrannus virens, Nutt. — Contopus virens, 

 Cabanis and most recent authors. 



So similar to the other small flycatchers that no single diagnostic mark 

 can be given. Perhaps the best character lies in the somewhat con- 

 spicuous white wing-bars, these being buffy or brownish in some others 

 and almost lacking in the Phoebe, with which the Wood Pewee is most 

 likely to be confounded. The present species is not quite so large as the 

 Phoebe, has a shorter tail proportionally, and its bill is decidedly broader. 



Distribution. — Eastern North America, west to the Plains, and from 

 southern Canada southward, migrating through eastern Mexico and 

 Honduras to Columbia and Equador; breeds from Florida to Newfoundland. 



The Wood Pewee is generally distributed throughout Michigan, its 

 abundance depending apparently on local conditions and not on latitude 

 or altitude. Other things being equal, it seems to prefer decidous woods, 

 but it is frequently found along the edges of white pine tracts or even in 

 the depths of hemlock and spruce timber. 



It is one of the latest of our birds to come from the south, also one of the 

 most regular. In the latitude of Lansing it arrives from the 5th to the 

 12th of May, rarely earlier or later. At Petersburg, Monroe county, Mr. 

 Trombley's"^earnest record was May 6, 1887, and the latest May 20, 1890. 

 It lingers until about the middle of September, but is rarely seen during 

 the last week in that month. 



On an average the first nest is built during the first week in June, and 

 fresh eggs may be found from the 6th to the 20th of that month. A second 

 nest is frequently built in July, often toward the last of the month, but 

 these second nests are by no means as abundant as the first. The nest is 

 unlike that of any other flycatcher of our acquaintance; shallow, thin- 

 walled, often bottomless, or nearly so, yet so securely placed on a horizontal 

 branch, and its materials so firmly interwoven and glued by spider's webs 

 and apparently l^y some other adhesive material, that it frequently out- 

 lasts the winter's storms, though the birds seem never to use the nest a 

 second time. It is built mainly of fine grasses, thin strips of bark, small 

 roots and various plant fibres, and covered outside by spider's webs, bits 

 of moss, lichens and similar material so as to closely resemble the branch 

 upon which it is placed. Ordinarily it is not less than ten feet from the 

 ground and occasionally is found at an elevation of forty or fifty feet, more 

 often from twenty to thirty. 



The eggs are usually three, occasionally but two, more rarely four. They 

 are white or cream-colored, heavily spotted aljout the larger end with 

 markings of brown and purple, and average .71 by .53 inches. 



According to Bendire "the ordinary call note sounds like 'pee-a-wee' 

 or 'see-e-wee,' long drawn out and plaintive in sound; apparently a short 

 note like 'pee-eer,' 'phce-hee,' or 'hee-ee' is also given, this if possible is 

 a still more mournful strain than the former, but it is not so frequently 

 heard. No two persons would put them down alike." After sunset the 

 Wood Pewee not infrequently breaks into a twittering song of consideral)le 

 length and variety which it utters while on the wing and fljang irregularly 

 here and there as if in great excitement. 



The food consists very largely of insects taken on the wing, yet it not 

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