286 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 



though somewhat like that of the Goldfinch's plaintive note. 

 Their song-note is delivered energetically and forcibly, the 

 head being tossed or thrown back, and the tail depressed. It 

 resembles the syllables che-bee-u, and is distinct from all other 

 notes that I have ever heard. 



Nests of this species which I have lately examined are cup- 

 shaped, but shallow. They are usually built very near the 

 ground, and, according to Mr. Henshaw, in an upright fork. 



(B) MINIMUS. Least Flycatcher. Least "Pewee" "Chebec." 

 (A common summer-resident throughout Massachusetts.) 

 (a). Five inches long or more. Except in size, scarcely 

 different from E. trailli (A), unless somewhat grayer. Notes 

 and eggs, however, distinct. 



(b). The nest is placed from five to twenty feet above the 

 ground, on a horizontal limb (frequently where it forks), occa- 

 sionally one of a shade-tree, but more often one of a tree in 

 some orchard or wood. It is sometimes built in a crotch, and 

 then resembles the Goldfinch's nest. It is composed of fine 

 grasses, rootlets (and pine-needles), firmly woven together 

 with caterpillar's silk, cobwebs, cottony or woollen substances, 

 and such accidental materials as thread or string. In Eastern 

 Massachusetts, four or five eggs are usually laid in the first (or 

 second) week of June ; occasionally others in July. They 

 average -60 X *50 of an inch, and are white, or creamy. 



(c). The Least Flycatchers are common summer-residents 

 almost throughout New England, though rare in some of the 

 northern portions. They reach Massachusetts in the first week 

 of Ma} T , and remain there until the middle of September. 

 They frequent both woods and orchards, in cultivated districts 

 rather preferring the latter, particularly if somewhat neglected 

 and unfrequented. As a rule, they do not resort to pine-groves, 

 or to very thick woods, as the Wood Pewees often do. They 

 prefer woodland composed of birches, maples, and beeches, and 

 do not show the fondness for low growth and wet lands, so 

 often observable in Traill's Flycatcher. They generally return 

 every year to their chosen home, and apparently, when once 



