FAMILY TyrannldK. 



presence ia soon made known by its oft-repeated melan- 

 choly notes seeming to speak some settled sorrow that 

 time can never heal. The sighing of the pines is not 

 more expressive of mournful fancies than the sobbing of 

 the little sombre-colored bird, flitting apparently incon- 

 solable through their shades." That is carrying things 

 to extremes, I should say, and smacks not a little of 

 maudlin sentiment. However, every one to his own 

 mind, and if one feels that way about a bird singing in 

 largo time, the interpretation is presumably correct, for 

 at most the music is a song without words. A bright 

 little poem from the pen of J. T. Trowbridge gives us 

 an entirely different impression of the bird's character, 

 so there is no doubt but that pure sentiment is at the 

 bottom of the whole matter. 



The Wood Pewee is a common resident of the orchard, 

 and often of the elm or maple that shades the village 

 street; in spring and early summer he spends most of the 

 time in the woods, but when the young have flown he 

 returns to "town "or at least to some highway that 

 leads to it. Like all others of his tribe he is famous for 

 his dexterity in catching insects on the wing. 



Chebec. Least The little Chebec has none of the music 

 Flycatcher of the Wood p ewee . His is a toneless call 

 ^nimu of two short syllables which is the origin of 

 L. 5.40 inches his common name. In appearance, too, 

 Mayist he is very ordinary. Upper parts olive 



brown; wings and tail sepia brown, the wing coverts 

 tipped with buffish drab forming two distinct wing- 

 bars on each wing ; under parts dull white, grayish 

 on the breast, and generally yellowish below ; the 

 lower mandible brown. Male and female are marked 

 alike. This is the smallest of the Flycatchers. Nest, of 

 rootlets, plant-fibre, and plant-down interwoven with 

 long hairs, usually lodged in a Y branch six to fifteen 

 feet above ground. Egg pure white. The bird is com- 

 mon through the Eastern States, but breeds only from 

 Pennsylvania northward to Quebec. 



There is no bird more easily identified than the Least 

 Flycatcher. His call note is unique ; it is a perfectly 

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