248 FLYCATCHERS. 



To thoroughly appreciate how well the Pe wee's disposition is- 

 suited to his haunts and notes, we have only to imagine him taking 

 the Phoebe's place and singing the Phoebe's song. He was not in- 

 tended to adorn a bridge or barn, but in the darkened woods, high up 

 in the trees, he finds a congenial home. 



His pensive, gentle ways are voiced by his sad, sweet call: 

 .p. The notes are as musical and restful, as much a part 

 of Nature's hymn, as the soft humming of a brook. 

 All day long the Pewee sings ; even when the heat 

 H of summer silences more vigorous birds and the 

 Pee-a - wee midday sun sends light-shafts to the ferns, the 



clear, sympathetic notes of the retiring songster come from the green 

 canopy overhead, in perfect harmony with the peace and stillness of 

 the hour. 



463. Empidonax flaviventris Baird. YELLOW-BELLIED FLY- 

 CATCHER. Ad. Upper parts rather dark olive-green; wings and tail fus- 

 cous; greater and lesser wing-coverts tipped with white or yellowish white ; 

 under parts sulphur-yellow, the belly pure, the throat, breast, and sides more 

 or Jess washed with olive-green ; upper mandible black, lower mandible 

 whitish or flesh-color ; second to fourth primaries of equal length, the first 

 shorter than the fifth. Im. Yellow of the under parts brighter, wing-bars 

 more yellow, and sometimes tinged with pale ochraceous-buff'. L., 5*63 ; \V. 

 2-65 ; T., 2-16 ; B. from R, -33. 



Remarks. This is the most yellow of our small Flycatchers. In any plurn- 

 aga the entire under parts, including the throat, are sulphur-yellow or dusky 

 yellowish. In the other eastern species of this genus the throat is white. 



Range. Eastern North America; breeds from Berkshire County, Mass., 

 to Labrador ; winters in Central America- 

 Washington, rather common T. V., May 1 to May 31 ; Aug. 1 to Oct. 1. 

 Sing Sing, common T. V., May 17 to June 4 ; Aug. 8 to Sept. 20. Cambridge, 

 T. V., sometimes rather common, May 24 to June 5 ; Aug. 25 to Sept. 10. 



Nest, of moss, lined with grasses, on the ground, beneath the roots of a 

 tree or imbedded in moss. Egg*, four, creamy white, with numerous pale cin- 

 namon-brown markings, chiefly about the larger end, '68 x '54. 



To see this little Flycatcher at his best, one must seek the northern 

 evergreen forest, where, far from human habitation, its mournful 

 notes blend with the murmur of some icy brook tumbling over mossy 

 stones or gushing beneath the still mossier decayed logs that threaten 

 to bar its way. Where all is green and dark and cool, in some glen 

 overarched by crowding spruces and firs, birches and maples, there it is 

 we find him, and in the beds of damp moss he skillfully conceals his 

 nest. He sits erect on some low twig, and, like other Flycatchers, the 

 snap of his bill tells of a sally after his winged prey. He glides 

 quietly away when approached, and his occasional note of complaint 



