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THE PEWEE FLYCATCHER. 



MUSCICAPA FUSCA, BoNAP. 

 PLATE CXX. Male and Female. 



Connected with the biography of this bird are so many incidents re- 

 lative to my own, that could I with propriety deviate from my proposed 

 method, the present volume would contain less of the habits of birds than 

 of those of the youthful days of an American woodsman. While young, 

 I had a plantation that lay on the sloping declivities of a creek, the name 

 of which I have already given, but as it will ever be dear to my recollec- 

 tion, you will, I hope, allow me to repeat it — the Perkioming. I was 

 extremely fond of rambling along its rocky banks, for it would have been 

 difficult to do so either without meeting with a sweet flower, spreading 

 open its beauties to the sun, or observing the watchfid KingVfisher 

 perched on some projecting stone over the clear water of the stream. 

 Nay, now and then, the Fish Hawk itself, followed by a White-headed 

 Eagle, would make his appearance, and by his graceful aerial motions, 

 raise my thoughts far above them into the heavens, silently leading me to 

 the admiration of the sublime Creator of all. These impressive, and al- 

 ways delightful, reveries often accompanied my steps to tlie entrance of a 

 small cave scooped out of the solid rock by the hand of nature. It was, 

 I then thought, quite large enough for my study. My paper and pen- 

 cils, with now and then a volume of Edgeworth's natural and fascina- 

 ting Tales or Lafontaine's Fables, afforded me ample pleasures. It was 

 in that place, kind reader, that I first saw with advantage the force of 

 parental affection in birds. There it was that I studied the habits of the 

 Pewee ; and there I was taught most forcibly that to destroy the nest 

 of a bird, or to deprive it of its eggs or young, is an act of great cruelty. 



I had observed the nest of this plain-coloured Flycatcher fastened, as 

 it were, to the rock immediately over the arched entrance of this calm re- 

 treat. I had peeped into it : although empty, it was yet clean, as if the 

 absent owner intended to revisit it with the return of spring. The buds 

 were already much swelled, and some of the trees were ornamented with 

 blossoms, yet the ground was still partially covered with snow, and the 



