126 PEWEE FLYCATCHER. 



this propensity every country owes the augmentation of new species, 

 whether of birds or of quadrupeds, attracted by the many benefits met 

 with, as countries become more open and better cultivated : but now I 

 will, with your leave, return to the Pewees of the cave. 



On the thirteenth day, the little ones were hatched. One egg was 

 unproductive, and the female, on the second day after the birth of her 

 brood, very dehberately pushed it out of the nest. On examining this 

 egg, I found it containing the embryo of a bird partly dried up, with its 

 vertebrjE quite fast to the shell, which had probably occasioned its 

 death. Never have I since so closely witnessed the attention of birds to 

 their young. Their entrance with insects was so frequently repeated, 

 that I thought I saw the httle ones grow as I gazed upon them. The 

 old birds no longer looked upon me as an enemy, and would often come 

 in close by me, as if I had been a post. I now took upon me to handle 

 the young frequently ; nay, several times I took the whole family out, and 

 blew off the exuviae of the feathers from the nest. I attached light threads 

 to their leo-s : these they invariably removed, either with their bills, or 

 with the assistance of their parents. I renewed them, however, until I 

 found the little fellows habituated to them ; and at last, when they were 

 about to leave the nest, I fixed a light silver thread to the leg of each, 

 loose enouo-h not to hurt the part, but so fastened that no exertions of 

 theirs could remove it. 



Sixteen days had passed, when the brood took to wing ; and the old 

 birds, dividing the time with caution, began to arrange the nest anew. 

 A second set of eggs were laid, and in the beginning of August a new 

 brood made its appearance. 



The young birds took much to the woods, as if feeling themselves 

 more secure there than in the open fields ; but before they departed, they 

 all appeared strong, and minded not making long sorties into the open 

 air, over the whole creek, and the fields around it. On the 8th of Oc- 

 tober, not a Pewee could I find on the plantation : my little companions 

 had all set off on their travels. For weeks afterwards, however, I saw 

 Pewees arrivino- from the north, and lingering a short time, as if to rest, 

 when they also moved southward. 



At the season when the Pewee returns to Pennsylvania, I had the 

 satisfaction to observe those of the cave in and about it. There again, 

 in the very same nest, two broods were raised. I found several Pewees 

 nests at some distance up the creek, particularly under a bridge, and 



