OF NEW ENGLAND. 277 
II. SAYORNIS 
(A) rFuscus. Pewee (Flycatcher). Phebe-bird. Bridge 
Pewee. 
(A common summer-resident throughout the cultivated parts 
of New England.) 6 
(a). Seven inches long or less. Tail, forked; crown-feathers 
erectile, and very dark. Above, dark olive-brown, in autumn 
(after the moult) approaching olive-green. Sides always, and 
the breast often, shaded with the same. Under parts, other- 
wise white (or very pale yellow, chiefly behind, and brightest 
in autumn. Eye-ring, edging of the wings and of the outer 
tail-feather, inconspicuously white.) The throat is sometimes 
streaked. Bill wholly black. 
(b). The nest of the Pewee is most often built on a beam 
or pillar, or under the eaves of some building, occasionally 
those of a bridge. It was primitively attached to a wall of 
rock, either on a cliff, or in a cave, but, so far as I know, it is 
no longer often to be found in Massachusetts thus placed. It 
is rendered firm by mud, to which are added various materials, 
of which the most conspicuous is generally moss, and it is com- 
monly lined with horse-hairs. The eggs of each set are usu- 
ally five, average about -75 X °57 of an inch, and are pure 
white (rarely spotted?). Near Boston, one set is generally 
laid in the first or second week of May, and another in June. 
I have known a pair, who built in a shed partly surrounded by 
glass, to raise three broods in one season, of which the first 
was hatched about the fifth of May. An ege from the third 
set measures 65 X°50 of an inch or less. 
(c). There are few birds dearer to an ornithologist than the 
Pewee, and no birds are better entitled to the affection of a 
friend, if usefulness, cheerfulness, familiarity towards man, 
and charm of manner, deserve our regard. In fact no bird is 
more home-like than this species, who is almost the first to 
announce spring at our very doors, and who is the foremost to 
establish his home where we have established ours, and who 
returns persistently, if unmolested, to the same shed or barn, 
