232 USEFUL BIRDS. 
is deceptive, for the Pewee is evidently happy, and delights 
in its plaintive tones. Its common call is pee’-d-wee’, fol- 
lowed frequently by pe’e’-er , uttered in a drawling manner, 
brief description. 
and with considerable intervals 
between the phrases. Bendire 
says that the male has a low, 
twittering warble in the mating 
season. The bird also fwets and 
twitters from time to time. 
The nest merits more than-the usual 
It is usually saddled 
on a dead limb, the outside adorned, 
like that of the Hummingbird’s nest, 
with crustaceous lichens, so that when 
seen from below it looks like a knot on 
the branch. It is largely made of fine 
grasses and fibers, and often lined with 
them. As the nest is not deep, and’ 
Fig. 90.—Wood Pewee, Yests on the top of the branch, the 
one-half natural size. 
bottom is usually so thin that it would 
fall out were it not supported by the bark. 
The food of the Pewee consists very largely of flying 
insects, but it often flutters about the 
foliage, picking off caterpillars and plant 
lice. Daily in the early morning and 
in the dusk of evening, even in the un- 
certain gloom of the deep woods, this 
bird pursues its prey unerringly. Fly- 
ing beetles and ants, butterflies and 
A 
Fig. 92.—Tussock 
Fig. 91.— Tortricid or 
leaf-rolling moth, natu- 
ral size. 
; moths, flies, gnats, mosquitoes, —all are 
[ | taken. The Pewee is useful in the de- 
: struction of small moths and their larve. 
The male cankerworm moths, tussock 
moths, Tortricid moths, and gipsy moths 
are commonly eaten, while the young birds 
net ota [/| are fed largely at times on cankerworms. 
; This bird takes some parasitic flies, and 
or vaporer moth, Bendire records an instance where it pil- 
Ds ee fered young trout from a hatchery. 
