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BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 247 



SAYORNIS PH(EBE (Latham). (456.) 



PHCEBE. 



This plain but very much esteemed bird reaches us about the 

 first to the tenth of April. Dr. Hvoslef reports its arrival at 

 Lanesboro on the 24th of March, and at different points in 

 southern Minnesota it is recognized about the same date. It is 

 as widely a distributed species as we have, and remains as long 

 as its food supply holds out, which is generally about the 15th 

 of October. Few birds are more thoroughly welcomed not- 

 withstanding its lack of attractive feathers. Its disposition to 

 cling to the approximate vicinities of our habitations, together 

 with its plaintive notes, ' 'phebe-phebee, " in a subdued tone, some- 

 what drawn out at times, and again shortened into ''peiveet, 

 peiveet,'' rapidly repeated in a more joyous manner. 



The females are some ten days or more behind the males in 

 arriving, and the courtship is quite delayed, and undemonstra- 

 tive. But they arrange family matters in some way so as to 

 have the nest built about the first of May or a little before, 

 when the season favors. Bridges are not as numerous in Min- 

 nesota as in Massachusetts, neither does our population in the 

 rural districts disturb the bird by the numbers as much as 

 there, yet true to its record in that country, it finds the bridge 

 if there is one, but in its absence it accepts a great variety of 

 places in which to build, notably the window caps under the 

 porches of our summer cottages at the lakes, or in the open 

 stables, or in a nook in the boat-house. Five eggs is usually 

 the complement in a nest constructed of grasses, roots, moss 

 and hairs, cemented together and onto the substance it is built 

 upon, with bits of mud. It is lined with fine grasses, wool and 

 feathers. The eggs are white with a creamy tint, Some eggs 

 are thinly spotted over the larger end with reddish-brown. 



Cottagers at Lake Minnetonka, or any other of our suburban 

 lakes, become greatly attached to this humble representative 

 of the birds that spend the summer in the groves and forest 

 bordering them. The first of its kind to seek those lovely 

 retirements, anticipating their arrival by several weeks, they 

 seem to welcome their coming, and at once begin their prepara- 

 tion of their own comfortable tenements under the shelter of 

 the projecting roof of the porches. Apparently the same 

 pairs return, and repair the old nest from year to year. Many 

 a time have I sat within a few yards of a nest built on the 

 plate, under the roof of my Cosy Nook Cottage, overlook- 



• 17z 



