THE WOOD PEWEE. 289 



Nebraska, Kansas, the Indian Territory, and somewhat beyond the eastern -half 

 of Texas, where it has been found breeding in Bexar and Tom Green counties. 

 In the extreme southern parts of its breeding range, in Florida and the GuH" 

 Coast, it is rather rare, and this is also the. case north of latitude 45°, in southern 

 New Brunswick and the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, while in Manitoba 

 it appears to be tolerably common up to latitude 50°. 



The Wood Pewee, as its name implies, is a common summer resident 

 throughout all the wooded portions of its range as indicated above, and is one of 

 the more tardy migrants to arrive on its breeding grounds, reaching them in the 

 more southern States in the first half of April, and in Pennsylvania, New York, 

 etc., about a month later. It shows a decided preference for open, mixed woods, 

 free from underbrush, and frequents the edges of such as border on fields, 

 clearings, etc., either in dry or moist situations. In Oneida and Herkimer comi- 

 ties, New York, I found the Wood Pewee common everywhere, both in the 

 more extensive forests, as Avell as in orchards or shade trees along the country 

 roads, and even in the villages. Its plaintive call notes could be heard at all 

 hours of the day and often in the night as well. Its song, if it may be called 

 such, is uttered in a sleepy, listless manner, while perched on some horizontal 

 limb or branch, usually one of the lower dead ones of a wide-spreading tree, on 

 which its sits very erect and alert, and from whence it darts every little while 

 after some passing insect, in the capture of which it is as expert as any of our 

 Flycatchers. The ordinary call note sounds like "p^e-a-w^d" or "s^d-d-w^^," 

 long drawn out and plaintive in sound. Occasionally a short note like "pe(^-^er," 

 "phd^-hed, " or "h^e-(^d" is also given, this, if possible, in a still more mournful 

 strain than the former, but it is not as frequently heard. I iind it very difficult to 

 reproduce the various calls on paper, and am perfectly well aware that no two 

 persons would put them down exactly alike. The male Wood Pewee, during 

 the mating season, gives vent occasionally to a low, twittering warble, possibly 

 an indication to its mate that all is well. 



Its food, like that of all Flycatchers, consists almost entirely of winged 

 insects, but I have seen now and then a Wood Pewee fluttering about a leaf or 

 small twig, as if it was picking off minute caterpillars or plant lice. Mr. George 

 A. Seagle, superintendent of the Wytheville (Virginia) Fish Commission station, 

 states: "This little bird has frequently been seen to catch yomig trout from the 

 ponds soon after they had been transferred from the hatching house." It is 

 possible that it may occasionally do a little harm in this ihanner, but, on the 

 whole, it certainly is an exceedingly useful bird, fairly well behaved toward its 

 neighbors, as long as they do not encroach too close on its nesting site, and it 

 deserves protection. It nests rather late; throughout our Middle States rarely 

 before the first week in June, and somewhat later farther north. In the vicinity 

 of Washington, District of Columbia, full sets of eggs may be looked for in the 

 first half of June, while in the more northern States nidification is at its height 

 during the latter part of this month and the first week in July. 



In the choice of nesting sites the Wood Pewee is not very particular; it 

 is equally at home among human habitations, in villages or near farmhouses, as 



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