PEWEE FLYCATCHER. 125 



In six tlays, six eggs were deposited ; but I observed that as they in- 

 creased in number, the bird remained a shorter time in the nest. The 

 last she deposited in a few minutes after alighting. Perhaps, thought I, 

 this is a law of nature, intended for keeping the eggs fresh to the last. 

 Kind reader, what are your thoughts on the subject ? About an hour 

 after laying the last egg, the female Pewee returned, settled in her nest, 

 and, after arranging the eggs, as I thought, several times under her body, 

 expanded her wings a little, and fairly commenced the arduous task of 

 incubation. 



Day after day passed by. I gave strict orders that no one should 

 go near the cave, much less enter it, or indeed destroy any bird's nest on 

 the plantation. Whenever I visited the Pewees, one or other of them 

 was on the nest, while its mate was either searching for food, or perched 

 in the vicinity, filling the air with its loudest notes. I not unfrequently 

 reached out my hand near the sitting bird ; and so gentle had they both 

 become, or rather so well acquainted were we, that neither moved on 

 such occasions, even when my hand was quite close to it. Now and then 

 the female would shrink back into the nest, but the male frequently 

 snapped at my fingers, and once left the nest as if in great anger, flew 

 round the cave a few times, emitting his querulous whining notes, and 

 alighted again to resume his labours. 



At this very time, a Pewee's nest was attached to one of the rafters 

 of my mill, and there was another under a shed in the cattle-yard. Each 

 pair, any one would have felt assured, had laid out the limits of its own 

 domain, and it was seldom that one trespassed on the grounds of its 

 neighbour. The Pewee of the cave generally fed or spent its time so far 

 above the mill on the creek, that he of the mill never came in contact 

 wth it. The Pewee of the cattle-yard confined himself to the orchard, 

 and never disturbed the rest. Yet I sometimes could hear distinctly the 

 notes of the three at the same moment. I had at that period an idea that 

 the whole of these birds were descended from the same stock. If not cor- 

 rect in this supposition, I had ample proof afterwards that the brood of 

 young Pewees, raised in the cave, returned the following spring, and 

 estabhshed themselves farther up on the creek, and among the out- 

 houses in the neighbourhood. 



On some other occasion, I will give you such instances of the return 

 of birds, accompanied by their progeny, to the place of their nativity, 

 that perhaps you will become convinced, as I am at this moment, that to 



