258 BIRDS OF THE AIR. 



but the partial utterance of sorrow that still lingers in 

 their breasts after tlie occasion of it is forgotten ! 



Though a retiring bird, tlie Pewee is very generally 

 known on account of his remarkable note, which is heard 

 often in our gardens as well as in his peculiar habitats. 

 Like the Cliff-Swallow, he builds his nest under a shelter- 

 ing roof or rock, and it is often fixed upon a beam or plank 

 under a bridge. There are no prejudices in the community 

 against this species. They are not destroyed on any occa- 

 sion. By the most ordinary observer they cannot be sus- 

 pected of doing miscliief in the garden. I should remark 

 in this place, that the Flycatchers and Swallows and a 

 few other species that enjoy immunity in our land, though 

 multiplied to infinity, would perform only those offices 

 which are assigned them by nature. It is a vain hope 

 that while employed in exterminating any species of small 

 birds their places can be supplied and their services per- 

 formed by other species which are allowed to multiply 

 to excess. The Swallow and the Pewee, with all their 

 multitudinous families, will not perform the work of the 

 Robin or the Woodpecker, nor can all these together do 

 the work of the Sylvians. 



WOOD-PEWEE, 



We seldom ramble in a deep wood without hearing the 

 feeble and plaintive note of the Wood-Pewee, — a bird 

 that does not leave the forest, and is therefore less known 

 than the larger species that builds under bridges and the 

 eaves of old houses. The Wood-Pewee places its shallow 

 nest upon some large branch of a tree without any protec- 

 tion above it, and it is chiefly concealed by the resem- 

 blance of its materials to the mosses and lichens on the 

 bough. Its habits, except its attachment to the soli- 

 tude of the wood, differ but little from those of the com- 



