THE PEWEE. 133 
SAYORNIS, Bonaparte. 
Sayornis, BONAPARTE? Ateneo Italiano (1854). J6., Comptes Rendus (1854), 
Notes Orn. Delattre. 
Head with a blended depressed moderate crest; tarsus decidedly longer than 
middle toe, which is scarcely longer than the hind toe; bill rather narrow, width at 
base about half the culmen; tail broad, long, slightly forked, equal to the wings, 
which are moderately pointed, and reach to the middle of the tail, first primary 
skorter than the sixth. 
SAYORNIS FUSCUS, — Baird. 
The Pewee; Phebe-bird. 
Muscicapa fusca, Gmelin. Syst. Nat., I. (1788) 931. Aud. Orn. Biog., II. (1834) 
122; V. (1889) 424. Jb., Birds Amer., I. (1840) 228. 
Tyrannus fuscus, Nuttall. Man., I. (2d ed., 1840) 312. 
Muscicapa nunciola, Wilson. Am. Orn., II. (1810) 78; pl. xiii. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Sides of breast and upper parts dull olive-brown, fading slightly toward the tail; 
top and sides of head dark-brown; a few dull-white feathers on the eyelids; lower 
parts dull yellowish-white, mixed with brown on the chin, and in some individuals 
across the breast; quills brown, the outer primary, secondaries, and tertials edged 
with dull-white; in some individuals the greater coverts faintly edged with dull- 
white; tail brown, outer edge of lateral feather dull-white, outer edges of the rest 
like the back; tibize brown; bill and feet black; bill slender, edges nearly straight; 
tail rather broad, and slightly forked, third quill longest, second and fourth nearly 
equal, the first shorter than sixth. 
Length, seven inches; wing, three and forty-two one-hundredths; tail, three and 
thirty one-hundredths. 
Hab. — Eastern North America. 
In autumn, and occasionally in early spring, the colors are much clearer and 
brighter. Whole lower parts sometimes bright sulphur-yellow, above greenish-olive, 
top and sides of the head tinged with sooty; in the young of the year, the colors are 
much duller; all the wing coverts broadly tipped with light-ferruginous, as also the 
extreme ends of the wings and tail feathers; the brown is prevalent on the whole 
throat and breast; the hind part of the back, rump, and tail, strongly ferruginous. 
The tail of this species is quite deeply forked, the external feather being from 
thirty-five one-hundredths to forty one-hundredths of an inch longer than the 
middle one. 
This well-known bird is a very common summer inhabi 
tant of all New England. It arrives from the South often 
as early as the middle of March, sometimes before the last 
snowstorm of the season. As soon as the birds have 
paired, usually by the last of April, they commence build- 
