PROFESSIONAL FLY-CATCHING 



bird, which is about as large as the Kingbird, for it 

 gets out of the way when it notes our approach; but 

 its presence may be known by the single loud ringing 

 whistle which is different from any other bird note I 

 know. They nest in a hollow limb, and it is notorious 

 that in building they almost always use cast-off snake 

 skins. The eggs are very handsomely and heavily 

 marked with lines and scrawls. 



There are two common flycatchers which are liable 

 to be confused, the Phoebe and the Wood Pewee. 

 Both are small gray birds with whitish and partly dusky 

 breasts. The Phoebe is our familiar home bird which 

 builds its nest of moss and mud under some sheltered 

 part of our buildings, even over our very door, or under 

 the piazza. The Wood Pewee may also be seen about 

 the premises, but it keeps to the tall shade trees, where 

 it builds a frail lichen-covered nest flat on some branch 

 or fork. It is a good deal like the architecture of a 

 hummingbird and is just about as hard to discover. 

 The note of the Wood Pewee is that clear plaintive 

 whistle "pee-wee-ee" and we surely know r the short, 

 throaty note "phe-be" of our Phcebe. Another way of 

 distinguishing the Wood Pewee is that it is rather more 

 slender than Phoebe, generally with a darker breast, 

 and it seldom jerks its tail, which last it is Phoebe's 

 constant delight to do. 



The Phoebe is a hardy bird and comes back for the 

 summer at a very unsummerlike time, the last week of 

 March, setting one to wondering how it finds flying 



129 



