PEWEE FLYCATCHER. 12^ 



south of Charlestown in South Carolina, and very few in the lower parts 

 of that State. They leave Louisiana in February, and return to it in 

 October. Occasionally during winter they feed on berries of different 

 kinds, and are quite expert at discovering the insects impaled on thorns 

 by the I>oggerhead Shrike, and which they devour with avidity. I met 

 with a few of these birds on the Magdeleine Islands, on the coast of Lab- 

 rador, and in Newfoundland. 



The nest of this species bears some resemblance to that of the Barn 

 Swallow, the outside consisting of mud, with which are firmly impacted 

 grasses or mosses of various kinds deposited in regular strata. It is Uned 

 with delicate fibrous roots, or shreds of vine bark, wool, horse-hair, and 

 sometimes a few feathers. The greatest diameter across the open mouth 

 is from five to six inches, and the depth from four to five. Both birds 

 work alternately, bringing pellets of mud or damp earth, mixed with moss, 

 the latter of which is mostly disposed on the outer parts, and in some in- 

 stances the whole exterior looks as if entirely formed of it. The fabric is 

 firmly attached to a rock, or a wall, 'the rafter of a house, &c. In the 

 barrens of Kentucky I have found the nests fixed to the side of those 

 curious places called sink-holes, and as much as twenty feet below the sur- 

 face of the ground. I have observed that when the Pewees return in 

 spring, they strengthen their tenement by adding to the external parts 

 attached to the rock, as if to prevent it from falling, which after all 

 it sometimes does when several years old. Instances of their taking 

 possession of the nest of the Republican Swallow ( Hirundo Julva) have 

 been observed in the State of Maine. The eggs are from four to six, 

 rather elongated, pure white, generally with a few reddish spots near the 

 larger end. 



In Virginia, and probably as far as New York, they not unfre- 

 quently raise two broods, sometimes three, in a season. My learned 

 friend. Professor Nuttall, of Cambridge College, Massachusetts, thinks 

 that the Pewee seldom raises more than one brood in the year in that 

 State. 



This species ejects the hard particles of the wings, legs, abdomen, and 

 other parts of insects, in small pellets, in the manner of owls, goatsuckers 

 and swallows. 



