28 TYRANNID^E : FLYCATCHERS. 



tially similar to that of the Wood Pewee, the structure 

 being saddled on a horizontal limb, or fixed in a fork, 

 often at a great height from the ground. The nest is a 

 shallow, saucer-like fabric of twigs, rootlets, weed-stalks, 

 bark-strips and other similar material, rather loosely put 

 together. The very handsome eggs are of a pure creamy 

 white, speckled with brown or reddish and lilaceous 

 shades ; they are four or three in number, measuring 

 about 0.85x0.65, and are laid from the last week in 

 May, as in Massachusetts, to middle of June in Maine. 



WOOD PEWEE. 

 CONTOPUS VIRENS (L.) Cab. 



Chars. With the form and proportions of the last species, but 

 much smaller. Length, 6.00-6.50 ; wing, 3.25-3.50 ; tail, 2.75- 

 3.00 ; tarsus, middle toe and claw, together, scarcely or not 

 i.oo; tarsus alone, about 0.50, thus no longer than the bill; no 

 evident white tuft on the flank; head sub-crested, with erectile 

 feathers. Olive-brown, rather darker on the head ; sides with a 

 paler shade of the same, reaching nearly or quite across the 

 breast ; the throat and belly whitish, more or less tinged with 

 yellowish ; under tail-coverts the same, usually streaked with 

 dusky ; tail and wings blackish, the secondaries and coverts 

 edged and tipped with whitish ; feet and upper mandible black ; 

 under mandible usually yellow, sometimes dusky. 



In numbers according to latitudinal distribution the 

 well-known Wood Pewee presents the reverse state of the 

 case just outlined for the Olive-sided Flycatcher, being 

 most abundant in southern New England, and gradually 

 becoming less numerous as we proceed northward. 

 Nevertheless, it is one of New England's very com- 



