Phoebe. 229 



morning and late in the afternoon, often prolonging the 

 chase until darkness drives them to their rest. Most of 

 them leave this latitude in September, while a few fre- 

 quently remain until early in October. 



PHCEBE. 



It was in my early rambles through the woodlands that 

 I first met and learned to love the gentle phoebe. While 

 it is not essentially a bird of the woodlands, its favorite 

 resorts are the bridges which cross the streams, and in 

 this region the streams mark the location of our forests. 

 The water-courses of this great prairie section are fringed 

 by the wooded areas, now reduced to narrow ribbons on 

 either side of the creeks, if indeed not removed altogether, 

 and in my boyhood rambles along one of these Illinois 

 creeks I received my early lessons in birdways. Among 

 the treasured pictures of my early years of the 



"time when meadow, erove, and stream, 

 The earth, and every common sight, 



To me did seem 

 Apparelled in celestial light. 

 The glory and the freshness of a dream," 



there stands the old bridge over the creek along whose 

 banks I so frequently wandered. Kecalling the familiar 

 scenes, in fancy I again stand beside the stonework sup- 

 porting the ends of the bridge, and looking up to scan the 

 beams above my bead, I seem to see the form of the gentle 

 phoebe darting from its nest, and to see it perch on the 

 end of a dry twig over the stream, uttering its abrupt, 

 emphatic call. It is no matter of wonder that though 

 devoid of the colors which render attractive some birds 

 otherwise little worthy of our esteem, the phoebe has a 

 welcome place in the friendship of all who know it. Its 

 preference for the vicinity of man ; its early appearance 

 at the first evidences of the opening of spring; its refined 

 and modest manners, and its perfect freedom from any 

 imputation of harm in its food-habits, all combine to give 

 it a high rank among the favorite and familiar species. 



