142 BIRDS 



Plains. Most common in Mississippi basin; common 

 also in eastern United States, south of New England. 

 Migrations — ^May. September. Common summer resi- 

 dent. 



Far more tyrannical than the kingbird is this "wild 

 Irishman," as John Biu-roughs calls the flycatcher with the 

 tousled head and harsh, rasping voice, who prowls around 

 the woods and orchards startUng most feathered friends 

 and foes with a loud, piercing exclamation that sounds 

 like What I Unlike good children, he is more often heard 

 than seen. 



That the unpopular bird takes a mischievous deUght in 

 scaring its enemies maybe known from its liking better than 

 any other lining for its nest, a cast snake skin. Is it any 

 wonder that the baby flycatchers' hair stands on end? If 

 the great-crest cannot find the skin of a snake to coil 

 aroimd her nest, or to hang outside of it, she may use 

 onion skins, or oiled paper, or even fish scales; for what was 

 once a protective custom sometimes becomes degraded 

 into a cheap imitation of the imitation in the furnishing of 

 her house. Into an abandoned woodpeckers' hole or a 

 bluebirds' cavity after the young of these early nesters 

 have flown, or into some unappropriated hollow in a tree, 

 this flycatcher carries enough grasses, weeds, and feathers 

 to keep her nestlings cozy during those rare days of June 

 beloved by Lowell, but which Dr. Holmes observed are 

 often so rare they are raw. 



The Phoebe 



Length — 7 inches. About an inch longer than the English 

 sparrow. 



