THE KING-BIRD. 317 



returning to the same twig ; frequently flirting his tail, like 

 the wagtail, though not so rapidly. He begins to build about 

 the twentieth or twenty-fifth of March, on some projecting 

 part under a bridge in a cave in an open well five or six 

 feet down among the interstices of the side walls often under 

 a shed in the low eaves of a cottage, and such like places., 

 The outside is composed of mud mixed with moss ; is gener- 

 ally large and solid ; and lined with flax and horse hair. 

 The eggs are five, pure white, with two or three dots of red 

 near the great end. I have known them rear three broods 

 in one season. 



The notes of the Pewee, like those of the blue-bird, are 

 pleasing, not for any melody they contain, but from the ideas 

 of spring and returning verdure, with all the sweets of this 

 lovely season, which are associated with his simple but lively 

 ditty. Towards the middle of June he becomes nearly silent, 

 and late in the fall gives us a few farewell and melancholy 

 repetitions, that recall past imagery, and make the decayed 

 and withered face of nature appear still more melancholy. 



The Pewit is six inches and a half in length, and nine and 

 a half broad ; the upper parts are of a dark dusky olive ; the 

 plumage of the head, like those of the two preceding, is loose, 

 subcrested, and of a deep brownish black ; wings and tail 

 deep dusky, the former edged on every feather with yellowish 

 white, the latter forked, and widening remarkably towards 

 the end ; bill formed exactly like that of the King-bird ; whole 

 lower parts a pale delicate yellow ; legs and bill wholly black ; 

 iris hazel. The female is almost exactly like the male, ex- 

 cept in having the crest somewhat more brown. 



The species called the Wood Pewee flycatcher, is an exceed- 

 ingly expert bird. It loves to sit on the high dead branches, 

 amid the gloom of the woods, calling out in a feeble plaintive 

 tone, peto way ; peto way ; pee way ; occasionally darting 

 after insects ; sometimes making a circular sweep of thirty or 

 forty yards, snapping up numbers in its way with great adroit- 

 ness ; and returning to its position and chant as before. In 

 the latter part of August its notes are almost the only ones 



