Widmann A Preliminary Catalog of the Birds of Missouri. 139 



and from Nova Scotia to the Pacific. In winter to Central and 

 northern South America as far as Peru. 



In Missouri an irregularly, or fairly, common transient visitant 

 from the second week of May to the first of June (June 2, 1907, 

 St. Louis) and in fall from August 20 to the middle of September. 

 Most of the notes on this species have been made on the bluffs 

 and in the bottoms along the Mississippi River, but it has also 

 been met with in the southeast on the St. Francis River, 

 in the Ozarks at Galena, Stone Co., and has been reported from 

 the western border, Jasper Co., by Mr. Savage. To one who is 

 familiar with its habit of perching on the highest tree tops, or 

 who is acquainted with its peculiar, far-reaching whist 1 e, its 

 presence cannot easily escape notice especially in spring when, 

 retained by cold nights or strong northerly winds, it remains at 

 the same place several days. Its stops in autumn seem to be 

 shorter and less observable, because so early in the season, 

 when the trees are yet covered with foliage and insects most 

 plentiful. 



*461 CONTOPUS VIRENS (Linn.). Wood Pewee. 



Muscicapa virens. Muscicapa rapax. Muscicapa querula. Tyrannula 

 virens. 



Geog. Dist. Eastern North America; breeds from the Gulf 

 coast to Newfoundland and southern Canada ; west to Manitoba, 

 eastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas, and Texas south to the moun- 

 tains of Orizaba. In winter through eastern Mexico and Hon- 

 duras to Columbia and Ecuador. 



In Missouri one of the common and most generally distributed 

 birds in all kinds of woods, high and low, dry and wet, and, where 

 these are wanting, resorting to orchards, parks, cemeteries and 

 the larger gardens in towns and suburbs. The first Wood 

 Pewees arrive in southeast Missouri as early as April 20, in central 

 Missouri April 28, and in the northern tier of counties between 

 the 4th and the 12th of May. They leave the state in the latter 

 part of September, but stragglers linger into October and the last 

 depart between October 8 and 15. Transient visitants, indicated 

 by the presence of unusually large numbers, have been noticed 

 about the middle of May and in the fourth week of September. 

 Though the forerunners reach St. Louis at the end of April, the 

 species does not become common and generally distributed 

 before the fifth of May and in the more northern part of the 

 state before the middle of the month. 



