OP NEW ENGLAND. 279 



presses her materials into position with her bill. She next 

 gathers something from a tree in the orchard, but, on seeing 

 me as I move, she is frightened, and utters a chip, though her 

 mouth is quite full. Just then a most familiar sound falls 

 upon my ear, and recalls me to my biography. On looking up, 

 I see two Pewees providing food, either for their own young, 

 or for some helpless Cow-bird, who has been left to their care. 

 What labor they are obliged to undergo ! Probably no less 

 than a thousand insects must be procured each day for several 

 weeks. One spring, when the season was backward, and the 

 same pair were behindhand in building, they proceeded to con- 

 struct, side by side in a shed, two nests, which were finished 

 at the same time. While the male fed the young of the first 

 brood in one nest, the female laid the eggs of a second brood 

 in the other ; but, whether this was their original design or not, 

 I cannot say. 



The Pewees reach Massachusetts about the first of April, 

 and rarely, if ever, before the last week of March. They ar- 

 rive singly, and the males seem quite dispirited until the 

 appearance of their mates, when they at once assume their 

 usual cheerfulness. The same pair return every year to the 

 same spot, during their life-time, and, should one of them die, 

 the other often finds a new mate, with whom, in the following 

 spring, he returns to his old quarters. The Pewees arc sum- 

 mer-residents in all the States of New England, but in the 

 northern sections are not common, though elsewhere abundant 

 and generally well-known. They frequent farms, and culti- 

 vated or open lands. They are nowhere shy, but occasionally 

 the rapidity with which they check their course on entering the 

 building which contains their nest, and on seeing there some 

 person, shows that they possess a share of the timidity natural 

 to most birds. They are chiefly insectivorous, though they fre- 

 quently feed upon berries, such as those of the poisonous "ivy." 

 In hunting for their usual prey, they choose a perch in some 

 open spot, and rarely at any great height from the ground. 

 They then flirt their tails, or from time to time utter their 

 notes ; but, on seeing an insect, they fly, and commonly seize it 



