230 Sketches of Some Common Birds. 



The young lover of nature who has missed the presence 

 aud companionship of many of the birds through the drear 

 wioter, longs for the first genial breezes and other indica- 

 tions of spring, for he knows that the voice of the phoebe 

 will then soon greet him in his woodland rambles, and he 

 improves the first opportunity to visit the places made 

 bright by this harbinger of spring. 



The phoebe loves to dwell about the mill-pond or the 

 mill-race, and there its presence is welcomed by the miller 

 and his assistants, who usually know the location of its 

 moss-covered home on a moist beam or a dripping rock. 

 They frequently stop a moment as they pass in their work 

 to watch the progress of the family every summer until 

 the youngsters venture to flutter out for themselves. 

 When the farmer leads his horses, weary and thirsty after 

 their toil, to the well for their noonday draught, he learns 

 to look for the appearance of the phoebe from its nest in 

 a corner of the rude shed over the well, and his children 

 frequently clamber up to peep into the domicile and to 

 note the number of the eggs, or the growth of the hungry 

 brood. Or, if the well-roof is not the chosen site of the 

 home, a beam in the partly open barn, or under the car- 

 riage shed, may allure it to fix its habitation thereon, and 

 as the children play about the outbuildings they soon dis- 

 cover the residence of their familiar friend. 



The phoebe makes its summer home in eastern United 

 States and British Provinces. Its western limit is the 

 edge of the great plains. In the fall it retires to the 

 southern part of the United States, eastern Mexico, and 

 Cuba. Its northern limit in winter is about the thirty- 

 eighth parallel. Not long after the ice has permanently 

 disappeared from the streams whose banks it frequents, 

 and before the robin, bluebird, and song sparrow have 

 ceased to utter their first songs, the phoebe has taken its 

 accustomed place on the bare extremity of the elm bough 

 near the bridge. It prefers the vicinity of water, for over 

 streams and ponds swarm the insects which it regularly 

 makes its fare, and along the beds and banks are the moss 

 and damp rootlets it uses in the construction of its home. 

 Often, however, its preference for human surroundings 

 leads it to live away from either stream or pond. What, 



