248 



FLYCATCHERS. 



:=:L .z 

 Pee-a - wee 



To thoroughly appreciate how well the Pewee's disposition is 

 suited to his haunts and notes, we have only to imagine iiiin taking 

 the Phoebe's place r.iui singing the Phoebe's song. He was not in- 

 tended to adorn a bridge or barn, but in the darkened woods, high up 

 in the trees, he finds a congenial home. 



His pensive, gentle ways are voiced by his sad, sweet call : 

 The notes are us musical and restful, as much a part 

 of Nature's hymn, the soft humming of a brook. 



p — ^^^-— — ^ ; All day long the 1'. ce sings; even when the heat 



L. rz: of summer silences more vigorous birds and the 



midday sun sends light-shafts to the ferns, the 

 clear, sympathetic notes of the retiring songster come from the green 

 canopy overhead, in perfect harmony with the peace and stillness of 

 the hour. 



46S. Empidonaz "avlventris Bain/. Yellow-bellied Fly- 

 cAT(;iiEU. Ad. — Upper parts rutliur dark olivc-grcen; wings and tail fua- 



coum; greater and let .viiig-eoverts tipped with wliite or yellowish white; 



under parts sulphur-yellow, the belly pure, the throat, breast, and sides more 

 or less waslied with olivc-grecu; upper mandible blaek, lower mandible 

 whitish or tlesh-color; seeond to fourih primaries of equal length, the lirst 

 sliorter than the fifth. Im. — Yellow of tlie under parts brighter, wmg-bars 

 more yellow, and sometimes tinged with pale ochraeeous-buti, L., o'GS; W. 

 2-65; T., 2-lG; B. from N., -Xi. 



Reinarl'8. — This is the most yellow of our small Flycatcliors. In any plum- 

 ag2 the entire under parts, iiieluding the throat.^ are sul[ihur-yellow or dusky 

 yellowish. In the other eastern species of this genus the throat is white. 



Range. — Eastern North Ameriea; breeds from Berkshire County, Mas.s., 

 to Labrador ; winters in Central America. 



Wiushington, rather common T. V., May 1 to May .".1 ; Aug. 1 to Oct. 1. 

 Sing Sing, common T. V., May 17 to June 4; Aug. 8 to Sept. liO. Cambridge, 

 T. v., .sometimes rather common, May 24: to June 5; Aug. 2") to Sept. 10. 



At'.s<, of moss, lined with grasses, on the ground, beneath tlic roots of a 

 tree or imbedded in moss, ^f/f/s four, creamy white, with numerous pale cin- 

 namon-brown markings, cliieHy about the larger end, -08 x •.")4. 



To see this little Flycatcher at his best, one must seek the northern 

 evergreen forest, where, far from human habitation, its mournful 

 notes blejul with the murmur of some icy brook tumbling over mossy 

 stones or gushing beneath the still mossier decayed logs that threaten 

 to bar its way. Where all is green and dark and cool, in .some glen 

 overarched by crowding spruces and firs, birches aiul nuiples, there it is 

 we find him, ami in the beds of damp moss he skillfully conceals his 

 ne.st. He sits erect on some low twig, and, like other Flycatchers, the 

 snap of his bill tells of a sally after his winged prey. He glides 

 (piielly away when approached, and his occasional note of complaint 



i 



