3*6 



THE PHCEBE. 



Nesting is, of course, the absorbing business of all migrant birds during 

 their summer residence, but in few of them is devotion to the rearing of young, 

 and attachment to a chosen locality carried to a higher degree than in the case 

 of Phcebe. Two or three broods are often raised by these birds in a season, 

 and the same pair will return to a favorite culvert or outbuilding year after 

 year. A recent writer tells of a pair which built nests along the lintel of a 

 door for six successive years, until the place was crowded full of nests in 

 various degrees of preservation. 



Formerly Phcebes nested entirely along streams, placing their nest on a 

 convenient ledge of rock jutting out from some moss-covered bank, which was 

 kept damp by the spray of falling water; or else attaching them to the sides 

 of small caves. This habit still persists in many parts of our state, and nests 

 are to be commonly found along shale-cliffs and in sand-stone grottoes or old 

 quarry-holes. But Phcebes have also adopted the ways of civilization, and 



