Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored 



When not domesticated, as these birds are rapidly becoming, 

 the phcebes dearly love a cool, wet woodland retreat. Here they 

 hunt and bathe ; here they also build in a rocky bank or ledge of 

 rocks or underneath a bridge, but always with clever adaptation 

 of their nest to its surroundings, out of which it seems a natural 

 growth. It is one of the most finished, beautiful nests ever found. 



A pair of phcEbes become attached to a spot where they 

 have once nested; they never stray far from it, and return to it 

 regularly, though they may not again occupy the old nest. This 

 is because it soon becomes infested with lice from the hen's 

 feathers used in lining it, for which reason too close relationship 

 with this friendly bird-neighbor is discouraged by thrifty house- 

 keepers. When the baby birds have come out from the four or 

 six little white eggs, their helpless bodies are mercilessly attacked 

 by parasites, and are often so enfeebled that half the brood die. 

 The next season another nest will be built near the first, the fol- 

 lowing summer still another, until it would appear that a colony 

 of birds had made their homes in the place. 



Throughout the long summer— for as the phoebe is the first 

 flyc-atcher to come, so it is the last to go— the bird is a tireless 

 hunter of insects, which it catches on the wing with a sharp click 

 of its beak, like the other members of its dexterous family. 



Say's Phcebe (Sayornis soya) is the Western representative 

 of the Eastern species, which it resembles in coloring and many 

 of its habits. It is the bird of the open plains, a tireless hunter 

 in midair sallies from an isolated perch, and has the same vibrat- 

 ing motion of the tail that the Eastern phoebe indulges in when 

 excited. This bird differs chiefly in its lighter coloring, but not 

 in habits, from the black pewee of the Pacific slope. 



Great-crested Flycatcher 



(Myiarchus crinitus) Flycatcher fiimily 



Called also: CRESTED FLYCATCHER 



Length—^. 50 to 9 inches. A little smaller than the robin. 



Male and Female— VtAVntr^ of the head pointed and erect. Upper 

 parts darl: grayish-olive, inclining to rusty brown on wings 

 and tail. Wing coverts crossed with two irregular bars of 

 yellowish white. Throat gray, shading into sulphur-yellow 



72 



