1 66 Birds Every Child Should Know 



around her eggs, or to hang out of the nest, she 

 may use onion skins, or oiled paper, or even 

 fish scales; for what was once a protective 

 custom, sometimes becomes degraded into a 

 cheap imitation of the imitation in the furnish- 

 ing of her house. Into an abandoned wood- 

 peckers' hole or a bluebirds' cavity after the 

 babies of these early nesters have flown, or into 

 some unappropriated hollow in a tree, this fly- 

 catcher carries enough grasses, weeds and 

 feathers to keep her nestlings cozy during those 

 rare days of June beloved by Lowell, but which 

 Dr. Holmes observed are often so rare they 

 are raw. 



PHCEBE 



Called also: Bridge Pewee; Dusky Flycatcher; 

 Water Pewee 



The first of its family to come North, as well 

 as the last to leave us for the winter, the phoebe 

 appears toward the end of March to snap up 

 the first insects warmed into life by the spring 

 sunshine. Grackles in the evergreens, red- 

 wings in the swampy meadows, bluebirds in the 

 orchard may assure us that summer is on the 

 way; but the homely, confiding phoebe, who 

 comes close about our houses and barns, brings 

 the good news home to us every hour. 



