TYRANNIDyE — THE FLYCATCHERS. 345 



resident in th(» State diirinj,' the summer months, but believes the great 

 majority go I'artlier nortli to breed. 



In Western Maine it is a common summer visitant, breeding tlicre in con- 

 si(h'ral)le numbers. I'rol'essor Verrill states tliat it is frequently seen there 

 tlie lirst of Mardi, beconnug ([uite common l)y the first of April. It is also 

 a summer visitant about Calais, where it breeds, but is rather rare. At 

 Hamilton, (Janada, Mr. Mcllwiaith reports it as a common summer resident, 

 arriving about April 15. 



In IVimsylvania tliis siwcics arrives among the earliest spring visitants, 

 sometimes as early as the iirst week in Marcli, and continues in that region 

 until late in October. Wilson has seen specimens as late as the 12th of 

 Novendjcr. He states that in tiie month of February be met with them 

 fe(!ding on the smilax berries in the low, swampy W()(jds of North and South 

 Car(jlina. They were already chanting tlieir simple, phuntive notes. In 

 IMassachusetts they usually arrive from the loth to the 25th of Marcli. 

 In the warm spring of 1870 they were already abundant by the lOth. 

 They were nesting early in April, and their first brood was ready to iiy by 

 the middle of May. They have two broods in a season, and occasionally 

 perhaps three, as I have known fre.sh eggs in the middle of August. They 

 leave late in October, unless the season be luuisually open, when a few linger 

 into Novemljcr. 



Tiieir well-known and monotonous, though not unpleasing, note of pe-wee, 

 or, as some hear \t, ph<}i-hm, is uttered with more force and freijuency in 

 early spring than later in the season, though they repeat the note throughout 

 their residence north. It usually has some favorite situation, in which it 

 remains aU the morning, watching for insects and contiiuially repeating its 

 simjde song. As he sits, he occasionally liirts his tail and darts out after 

 each passing insect, always returning to the same twig. 



This species is attracted both to the vicinity of water and to the neighbor- 

 hood of dwellings, probably for tin; same reason, — the abundance of insects in 

 either situation. They are a familiar, confiding, and gentle bird, attached 

 to localities, and returning to them year after year. They build in sheltered 

 situations, as under a bridge, under a projecting rock, in the porches of 

 houses, and in similar situations. I have known them to build on a small 

 shelf in the porch of a dwelling ; against the wall of a railroad-station, with- 

 in reach of the passengers ; and under a ])rqjecting window-siU, in full view 

 of the family, entirely unmoved by the presence of the latter at meal- 

 time. 



Their nests are constructed of small pellets of mud, jdaced in layers one 

 above the other, in semiturcular form, covered with mosses, and warndy lined 

 with fine straw and feat Inns. When the nest is jdaced on a Hat surface, — 

 a shelf or a projecting rock, — it is circular in form, and mud is not made 

 use of. A nest of this descrijjtion, taken by Mr. Vickary in Lynn, and con- 

 laining five egg.s, was constructed on a ledge, protected by an overlianging 



Mil,. II. 44 



