THE PHG:BE. 317 
the porch, or carriage house, or “lumber shed,” boasts no more welcome occu- 
pant than this gentle fly-catcher. Bridges, and especially stone culverts, offer 
a mediate ground between nature and ultra civilization, and of these the birds 
eagerly avail themselves. One expects at the crossing of every stream, in 
spring, to see a de- 
mure, dusky bird, 
perched upon the 
fence-wire where it 
spans the water, and 
to hear him say in 
plaintive but tender 
accents, “Pewit, 
phabe - phabe - pe- 
wit, phebe.” Phee- 
be herself is brood- 
ing patiently below, 
under the cool stone 
arch, in spite of 
the thunder of your 
horse’s hoofs. 
It would seem as 
if these birds become 
perfectly inured to 
danger of every sort, 
and especially to 
noises. The blasting 
of rock in a quarry- 
hole is nothing, if 
only the nest is not 
dislodged. In sev- 
eral instances I have 
found occupied nests 
in railroad culverts; 
once in an  open- 
Taken in 
topped culvert, and Ely Park, 
Elyria. 
within four feet of 
passing trains. Less 
prudent was a bird 
O90 3 Photo by the 
found sitting in a Author. 
stone conduit only PHGBE’S CAVE. 
eighteen inches high THIS LITTLE GROTTO IS THE ONE REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT. 
5 s nigh, 
through which a six-inch stream of water flowed. The illustration on the pre- 
ceding page shows a nest found in an old coffee-pot, which had been left hang- 
