234 USEFUL BIRDS. 
wiry note of each phrase longest, and heavily accented ; the 
last short, and with a falling inflection. In the early spring 
this bird occasionally flutters about in a circle or rises high 
in air, repeating its notes very rapidly, with variations, as 
if attempting a flight-song. The Phebe, like the Wood 
Pewee, is able, because 
of some peculiarity of 
its sight, to pursue and 
catch insects in the dusk 
of morning or evening. 
Its note is among the 
Fig. 94.— Moth of the spring cankerworm; ay a 
male; b, female; c, d, e, structural details. fir st_to be heard on & 
summer’s morning, and 
may even mingle with the last notes of the Owl or those of 
the Whip-poor-will. I have heard it shortly after 3.30 a.m. 
This characteristic makes the Phebe extremely useful, as it 
is thus able to catch such nocturnal moths and other insects 
as ordinarily remain hidden in daylight, and seldom venture 
to fly except in dusk or darkness. It feeds 
on a variety of pests. Among them are the 
imported elm-leaf beetle, the striped cucum- 
ber beetle, the cankerworm moth, the cut- 
worm moths, the brown-tail and the gipsy 
mothas Fig. 95.—Wood- 
Professor Beal, who has examined a large boring click 
number of Phcebes’ stomachs, finds the bird ®t enlarged. 
to be almost exclusively insectivorous. The insects eaten 
belong mainly to noxious species 
of beetles, including May beetles,’ 
click beetles, and weevils, grass- 
hoppers, wasps, and many of the 
flies that trouble cattle. The 
vegetable food is unimportant, 
consisting mainly of a few seeds, 
wild cherries, elderberries, and 
juniper berries. Now and then a raspberry or blackberry 
is taken. In the spring of 1868 Mr. C. J. Maynard found 
that some of these birds had their stomachs filled with haw- 
thorn berries. Gentry says that they feed on horseflies, 
Fig. 96.— Brown-tail moth. 
