OF NEW ENGLAND. 277 



III. SAYORNIS 



(A) FUSCUS. Pewee (Flycatcher). Phoebe-bird. Bridge 

 Pewee. 



(A common summer-resident throughout the cultivated parts 

 of New England.) 



(a). Seven inches long or less. Tail, forked ; crown-feathers 

 erectile, and very dark. Above, dark olive-brown, in autumn 

 (after the moult) approaching olive-green. Sides always, and 

 the breast often, shaded with the same. Under parts, other- 

 wise white (or very pale yellow, chiefly behind, and brightest 

 in autumn. Eye-ring, edging of the wings and of the outer 

 tail-feather, inconspicuously white.) The throat is sometimes 

 streaked. Bill wholly black. 



(b). The nest of the Pewee is most often built on a beam 

 or pillar, or under the eaves of some building, occasionally 

 those of a bridge. It was primitively attached to a wall of 

 rock, either on a cliff, or in a cave, but, so far as I know, it is 

 no longer often to be found in Massachusetts thus placed. It 

 is rendered firm by mud, to which are added various materials, 

 of which the most conspicuous is generally moss, and it is com- 

 monly lined with horse-hairs. The eggs of each set are usu- 

 ally five, average about -75 X *57 of an inch, and are pure 

 white (rarely spotted?). Near Boston, one set is generally 

 laid in the first or second week of May, and another in June. 

 I have known a pair, who built in a shed partly surrounded by 

 glass, to raise three broods in one season, of which the first 

 was hatched about the fifth of May. An egg from the third 

 set measures *65X'50 of an inch or less. 



(c). There are few birds dearer to an ornithologist than the 

 Pewee, and no birds are better entitled to the affection of a 

 friend, if usefulness, cheerfulness, familiarity towards man, 

 and charm of manner, deserve our regard. In fact no bird is 

 more home-like than this species, who is almost the first to 

 announce spring at our very doors, and who is the foremost to 

 establish his home where we have established ours, and who 

 returns persistently, if unmolested, to the same shed or barn, 



