The Pewee or Phcebe si 



with which the parents fed their young, and took their alter- 

 nate station by the side of the nest, undaunted in our presence, 

 only now and then uttering a 'tship when observed too 

 narrowly. Some ruffian at length tore down the nest and 

 carried off the brood, but our Pewee immediately commenced 

 a new fabric, laid five additional eggs in the same place with 

 the first and in haste to finish the habitation, lined it with the 

 silvery shreds of a manila rope discovered in the loft over the 

 boat-house. 



For several previous seasons the parents have taken up 

 their abode in this vicinity and seemed unwilling to remove 

 from the neighborhood they had once chosen, in spite of the 

 most untoward circumstances. 



Toward the time of their departure for the south, which 

 is about the middle of October, they are silent, and previously 

 utter their notes more seldom, as if mourning the decay of 

 nature and anticipating the approaching famine which now 

 urges their migration. In the middle States they raise two 

 broods in the season. 



The young, dispersed through the woods in small numbers, 

 may now and then be heard to the close of September exer- 

 cising their feeble voices in a guttural phebe, but the old birds 

 are almost wholly silent as they flit timidly through the woods 

 when once released from the cares of rearing their infant 

 brood, so that here the Phcebe's note is almost a concomitant 

 of spring and the mildest opening of summer; it is indeed 

 much more vigorous in April and May than at any succeeding 

 period. 



Geographical Distribution 

 The Phoebe is found throughout eastern North America. It 

 breeds from South Carolina to Newfoundland, and winters from North 

 Carolina southward, 



