WITH BROWN PREDOMINATING 203 
“tweer,” or “deer.” It ranges from the valleys to the 
higher Sierra Nevada, building its nest indiscriminately 
in pine, cottonwood, aspen, oak, ash, or fruit trees, but 
always near water. In habits it is essentially a fly- 
catcher, darting out from a favorite perch to seize its 
prey in the air. Mr. Lawrence advances the theory that 
it feeds high among the tree-tops during the early morn- 
ing and late evening, because the sunlight sets the insects 
stirring there before it does those of the undergrowth. 
The nests of this species are deeper and more solid 
than those of the Kastern pewee, in whose shallow 
structures the bare foundation branch sometimes shows 
through the scanty lining. Fine dry grasses, vegetable 
fibre, shredded inner bark and plant down, woven well 
together and bound with web from spider or cocoon, 
form the walls. <A lining of softer material, with occa- 
sionally a few feathers, completes the cradle which, about 
the middle of June, will contain two or three small eggs. 
Both parents share in the building of the home, though 
the male usually prefers to bring the material and the 
female to weave the walls to her own liking. She alone 
broods on the nest, but her little lover sits on a twig 
near by, calling her “dear” in sweetest tones, and if he 
makes two syllables of it, the meaning is just as clear. 
At the end of two weeks his cocky airs tell you there 
are babies in the wee nest, and that upon him falls the 
tremendous responsibility of guarding and feeding them. 
Small butterflies, gnats, all sorts of small winged insects 
are the orthodox food for infant flycatchers, and are 
swallowed at the rate of one every two minutes. Nor 
