THE riKEBE. 273 



ill quest of food, but ordinarily it consists of slow, fluttering movements from 

 point to point, especially during the mating- season, and it is then never protracted. 



The Phoebe, like our equally well-known Robin and Bluebird, is one of the 

 first migrants to return from its winter home, and is quite as well known and 

 fully as popular. It usually arrives in our Middle States during the first half of 

 March, and a little later farther north, although occasional stragglers have been 

 observed in Maine and northern New York during the first week in this month. 

 The males precede the females by about a week or ten days, and move direct 

 to their breeding grounds; mating - and nest building usually beginning about a 

 month later. Few of our native birds are more esteemed than the homely and 

 plainly colored Phcebe, and its return to the old haunts is generally looked for 

 with pleasure No bird is more attached to a locality once chosen for a nesting 

 site, and no reasonable amount of annoyance and disturbance will cause it 

 to forsake its old home. It may possibly change the location for good cause, 

 but if it does, it will usually select another in the immediate vicinity. It 

 would be difficult to name many native birds who do more good in a general 

 way and less harm than the Phoebe. Its food consists mainly of small beetles, 

 flies, moths, butterflies, etc., of which it destroys an enormous number, as it is 

 scarcely ever at rest, darting after passing insects and catching them both on the 

 wing and on the ground. It seems to be always hungry, and invariably finds 

 room for another choice morsel. It is said to help itself occasionally to trout 

 fry, but the damage caused in this respect must be very trifling, and is fully 

 compensated for by the good it does through the destruction of many noxious 

 insects; and, in my opinion, it deserves the fullest protection. After the berry 

 season commences it also feeds to some extent in summer on raspberries, straw- 

 berries, mulberries, and pokeberries, and in winter on cedar berries, palmetto ber- 

 ries, smilax berries, and wild grapes. It is one of the most restless little creatures 

 I know ; even while perching on a fence post, the gable of an outbuilding, or a 

 a weed stalk, its crest is often raised and lowered, its tail is forever twitching, 

 and it appears to be unable to remain motionless for more than a minute at a time. 



Dr. Ralph tells me that in Florida the Phcebe frequently alights on the 

 backs of cattle and follows them around, catching the flies on these animals, and 

 fluttering above them in search of insects. Their rather plaintive call notes, 

 given by most writers as "phcebe, pe-wee, phe-be," and "pe-weet,"do not sound 

 to me in that way; they appear rather to approach the words "see-he'e", see- 

 he^, " and are sometimes varied to "see-b^e"," or "see-whee - ," with the accent on 

 the last syllable ; this call is occasionally followed by a rattling note. Its alarm 

 note sounds like "tchak-tchak," and during the mating season the male indulges 

 now and then in a low, twittering warble. It utters its calls very frequently 

 and persistently in the early spring and for some time after its arrival, but less 

 often during the breeding season, when the cares of housekeeping absorb more 

 of its time. 



Mr. Eugene P. Bicknell makes the following pertinent comments on its 

 song: "It is one of those which appeal to the sympathies rather than to the ear, 



16896— No. 3 i8 



