Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored 
Phoebe 
(Sayornis pheebe) Flycatcher family 
Called also; DUSKY FLYCATCHER; BRIDGE PEWEE; WATER 
PEWEE 
Length—7 inches. About an inch longer than the English sparrow. 
Male and Female—Dusky olive-brown above ; darkest on head, 
which is slightly crested. Wings and tail dusky, the outer 
edges of some tail feathers whitish. Dingy yellowish white 
underneath. Bill and feet black. 
Range—North America, from Newfoundland to the South At- 
lantic States, and westward to the Rockies. Winters south 
of the Carolinas, into Mexico, Central America, and the 
West Indies. 
Migrations—March. October. Common summer resident. 
The earliest representative of the flycatcher family to come 
out of the tropics where insect life fairly swarms and teems, 
what does the friendly little phoebe find to attract him to the 
north in March while his prospective dinners must all be still in 
embryo? He looks dejected, it is true, as he sits solitary and silent 
on some projecting bare limb in the garden, awaiting the coming 
of his tardy mate; nevertheless, the date of his return will not vary 
by more than a few days in a given locality year after year. Why 
birds that are mated for life, as these are said to be, and such de- 
voted lovers, should not travel together on their journey north, 
is another of the many mysteries of bird-life awaiting solution. 
The reunited, happy couple go about the garden and out- 
buildings like domesticated wrens, investigating the crannies on 
piazzas, where people may be coming and going, and boldly 
entering barn-lofts to find a suitable site for the nest that it must 
take much of both time and skill to build. 
Pewit, phabe, phoebe; pewit, phabe, they contentedly but 
rather monotonously sing as they investigate all the sites in the 
neighborhood. Presently a location is chosen under a beam or 
rafter, and the work of collecting moss and mud for the founda- 
tion and hair and feathers or wool to line the exquisite little home 
begins. But the labor is done cheerfully, with many a sally in 
midair either to let off superfluous high spirits or to catch a morsel 
on the wing, and with many a vivacious outburst of what by 
courtesy only we may name a song. 
71 
