ONTARIO. 



This is one of the earhest harbingers of spring", and its 

 quick querulous notes are hailed with joy, as a prelude to the 

 grand concert of bird music which is soon to follow. 



Early in April the male Pee-wee appears in his former 

 haunts, and being soon joined by his mate they at once begin 

 to repair their old nest or to select the site for a new one. 

 They are partial to the society of man, and their habits, as 

 shown in their nesting, have been somewhat changed by this 

 taste. The original typical nest of the Pee-wee, we are told, 

 was placed on a ledge under a projecting rock, over which 

 water "trickled, the nest itself often being damp with the spra}'. 

 We still see one occasionally in such a position, but more 

 frequently it is placed on the beams of a bridge, beneath the 

 eaves of a deserted house, or under the verandah or the projection 

 of an outhouse. They raise two broods in the season, and 

 retire to the south in September. 



Genus CONTOPUS Cabanis. 



178. CONTOPUS BOREALIS (Swains.). 459. 



Olive-sided Flycatcher. 



Dusky olivaceous-brown, usually darker on the crown, where the 

 feathers have black centres, and paler on the sides ; chin, throat, belly, 

 crissum and middle line of the breast white, more or less tinged with 

 yellowish ; wings and tail blackish, unmarked, excepting inconspicuous 

 grayish-brown tips of the wing coverts, and some whitish edging of the inner 

 quills ; feet and upper mandible black, lower mandible mostly yellowish. 

 The olive-brown below has a peculiar streaky appearance hardly seen in 

 other species, and extends almost entirely across the breast. A peculiar tuft 

 of white fluffy feathers on the flanks. Young birds have the featheis, 

 especially of the wings and tail, skirted with rufous. Length, 7-8 ; wing, 

 3^-4^, remarkably pointed ; second quill longest, supported nearly to the 

 end by the first and third, the fourth abruptly shorter ; tail, about 3 ; tarsus, 

 middle toe and claw together about i\. 



Hab. North America, breeding fi'oni the northern and the higher 

 mountainous parts of the United btates northward In winter, south to 

 Central America and Colombia. 



Nest, a shallow structure composed of weeds, twigs, rootlets, strips of 

 bark, etc., loosely put together ; saddled on a bough or placed in a fork high 

 up in a tree. 



Eggs, 3 to 4 ; creamy-white, speckled with reddish-brown 



179 



