f The Phoebe at Home 



r 



like beak as gnats are caught " on the fly," it 

 sometimes stoops at larger food, even conde- 

 scending now and then to pick up a wriggling 

 caterpillar, or to engage in a contest with a 

 moth half as big as itself. 



The phoebe is one of the earliest birds to re- 

 turn to us from its winter home, which may 

 have been in Mexico or the West Indies, or per- 

 haps not farther away than North Carolina. 

 It is the latter, hardier ones, no doubt, that are 

 boldest in following the retreating winter north- 

 ward, so that we often hear their little song 

 before the last snowstorm. 



Now begins the most entertaining chapter of 

 phoebe's history that of its home-making and 

 home-keeping. There is a sweetness of domes- 

 ticity about the nesting and brooding of a bird 

 that belongs to no other creature. The bees 

 make good houses, and dwell in them and care 

 for their offspring and for each other ; and the 

 affection for their young in the four-footed ani- 

 mals is often striking and courageous, but the 

 suggestion of real home-life and happiness in 

 the ways of our woodland birds in spring ap- 



