BIRDS OF 



So far as at present known, this species is rare in Ontario, 

 and not very abundant anywhere. Towards the end of May, 

 1884, when driving along the edge of a swamp north of the 

 village of Millgrove, I noticed a bird on the blasted top of a 

 tall pine, and stopping the horse at once recognized the 

 species by the loud 0-whee-o, 0-whee-o, so correctly clescribed 

 as the note of this species by Dr. Merriam in his " Birds of 

 Connecticut." I tried to reach it with a charge of No. 8, and 

 it came down perpendicularly into the brush, but whether dead, 

 wounded or unhurt I never knew, for I did not see it again. 

 That was the only time I ever saw the species alive. 



It has a wide distribution, having been found breeding in 

 New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and north on the Saskatchewan, 

 near Cumberland House. In the west it has been observed in 

 Colorado and along the Columbia river. 



179. CONTOPUS VIRENS (Linn.). 461. 

 Wood Peivee. 



Olivaceous-brown, rather darker on the head, below with the sides 

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

 the throat and belly whitish, more or less tinged with dull yellowish ; under 

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

 the former unmarked, the inner quills edged and the coverts tipped with 

 whitish ; feet and upper mandible black, under mandible usually yellow, 

 sometimes dusky. Spring specimens are purer olivaceous. Early fall birds 

 are brighter yellow below. In summer, before the now worn feathers are 

 renewed, quite brown and dingy-whitish. Very young birds have the wing- 

 bars and pale edging of quills tinged with rusty, the feathers of the upper- 

 parts skirted, and the lower plumage tinged with the same ; but in any 

 plumage the species may be known from all the birds of the following genus 

 by these dimensions. Length, 6-6^ ; wing, 3^-3^ ; tail, about ^, not longer 

 than the /;///. 



Hab. Eastern North America to the plains, and from Southern Canada 

 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 

 frequently placed on the fork of a twig 10 or 12 feet or more from the ground. 



Eggs, 3 or 4 ; creamy-white, blotched and variegated at the larger end 

 with reddish-brown. 



180 



