Dusky, Gray, and Slate-colored 



^a«^^— Eastern North America, from Florida to northern British 



provinces. Winters in Central America. 

 Migrations — May. October. Common summer resident. 



The wood pewee, like the olive-sided flycatcher, has wings 

 decidedly longer than its tail, and it is by no means a simple 

 matter for the novice to tell these birds apart or separate them 

 distinctly in the mind from the other members of a family whose 

 coloring and habits are most confusingly similar. This dusky 

 haunter of tall shady trees has not yet learned to be sociable like 

 the phoebe; but while it may not be so much in evidence close 

 to our homes, it is doubtless just as common. The orchard is as 

 near the house as it often cares to come. An old orchard, where 

 modern insecticides are unknown and neglect allows insects to 

 riot among the decayed bark and fallen fruit, is a happy hunting 

 ground enough ; but the bird's real preferences are decidedly for 

 high tree-tops in the woods, where no sunshine touches the 

 feathers on his dusky coat. It is one of the few shade-loving 

 birds. In deep solitudes, where it surely retreats by nesting 

 time, however neighborly it may be during the migrations, its 

 pensive, pathetic notes, long drawn out, seem like the expression 

 of some hidden sorrow. Pe-a-wee, pe-a-wee, pewee-ah-peer is the 

 burden of its plaintive song, a sound as depressing as it is familiar 

 in every walk through the woods, and the bird's most prominent 

 characteristic. 



To see the bird dashing about in his aerial chase for insects, 

 no one would accuse him of melancholia. He keeps an eye on 

 the "main chance," whatever his preying grief may be, and 

 never allows it to affect his appetite. Returning to his perch 

 after a successful sally in pursuit of the passing fly, he repeats his 

 "sweetly solemn thought" over and over again all day long and 

 every day throughout the summer. 



The wood pewees show that devotion to each other and to 

 their home, characteristic of their family. Both lovers work on 

 the construction of the flat nest that is saddled on some mossy or 

 lichen-covered limb, and so cleverly do they cover the rounded 

 edge with bits of bark and lichen that sharp eyes only can detect 

 where the cradle lies. Creamy-white eggs, whose larger end is 

 wreathed with brown and lilac spots, are guarded with fierce 

 solicitude. 



Trowbridge has celebrated this bird in a beautiful poem. 



70 



