226 Sketc/ic'S of Some Common Birds. 



secluded parts of orchards, and the forest areas somewhat 

 away fiom the bank of the stream. The phoebe seldom 

 enters the limits of the towns or villages to find a site for 

 its home, while the wood pewee often establishes its 

 dwelling on the branches of the elms and other trees 

 overhanging the sidewalk in the shady parts of the vil- 

 lages and cities. Eobert Bidgway tells us: "The notes of 

 the two species are as different as their habits, those of the 

 wood pewee being peculiarly plaintive — a sort of wailing 

 p-e-e-e-e-ij wee, the first syllable emphasized and long 

 drawn out, and the tone a clear, plaintive, wiry whistle, 

 strikingly different from the cheerful, emphatic notes of 

 the true pewee." 



The summer homo of the wood pewee is eastern United 

 States and British Provinces, ranging westward to the 

 great plains, and in some instances to Manitoba. It win- 

 ters in eastern Mexico and in Central America. On its 

 northward journey in the spring it enters Illinois gener- 

 ally in the last week of April, though in 1895 I noted the 

 first w^ood pewee at Yirden, Illinois, on April 6th. Imme- 

 diately after its arrival its plaintive, dreamy calls can be 

 heard, and they are continued in its regular resorts until 

 the early part of August. Its pensive notes are often heard 

 late in the evening, long after other birds have lapsed into 

 quiescence. As late as ten or eleven o'clock, when the 

 bird is sitting on its nest, or perched on a branch near its 

 mate *on the nest, its sweet voice floats out in the still 

 night air, probably as an endearing call to inform its mate 

 of its nearness, or to reassure itself of the other's watchful 

 protection, as the child frequently calls to its parent in the 

 night to reassure itself of the loving father or mother's 

 faithful guardianship. The "rain-crow," or yellow-billed 

 cuckoo, the confiding chipping sparrow, and some other 

 common birds, have this habit of uttering their calls after 

 the regular hours of bird activity. 



The wood pewee is fond of a particular perch for its ac- 

 customed headquarters, commonly near the extremity of a 

 dead branch in the lower part of a tree, though sometimes 

 it chooses a branch nearer above the middle of the height 

 of the tree. Its fondness for a particular station, either 

 high or low in the tree, is readily observed, and its nest 



