LAND BIRDS. 401 
182. Wood Pewee. Myiochanes virens (Linn.). (461) 
Synonyms: Pewee Flycatcher, Pewee.—Muscicapa virens, Linn., 1766.—Muscicapa 
querula, Vieill—Muscicapa rapax, Wilson.—Tyrannus virens, Nutt.—Contopus virens 
Cabanis and most recent authors. , 
So similar to the other small flycatchers that no single diagnostic mark 
can be given. Perhaps the best character lies in the somewhat con- 
spicuous white wing-bars, these being buffy or brownish in some others 
and almost lacking in the Phebe, with which the Wood Pewee is most 
likely to be confounded. The present species is not quite so large as the 
Pheebe, has a shorter tail proportionally, and its bill is decidedly broader. 
Distribution.—Eastern North America, west to the Plains, and from 
southern Canada southward, migrating through eastern Mexico and 
Honduras to Columbia and Equador; breeds from Florida to Newfoundland. 
The Wood Pewee is generally distributed throughout Michigan, its 
abundance depending apparently on local conditions and not on latitude 
or altitude. Other things being equal, it seems to prefer decidous woods, 
but it is frequently found along the edges of white pine tracts or even in 
the depths of hemlock and spruce timber. 
It is one of the latest of our birds to come from the south, also one of the 
most regular. In the latitude of Lansing it arrives from the 5th to the 
12th of May, rarely earlier or later. At Petersburg, Monroe county, Mr. 
Trombley’s earliest record was May 6, 1887, and the latest May 20, 1890. 
It lingers until about the middle of September, but is rarely seen during 
the last week in that month. 
On an average the first nest is built during the first week in June, and 
fresh eggs may be found from the 6th to the 20th of that month. A second 
nest is frequently built in July, often toward the last of the month, but 
these second nests are by no means as abundant as the first. The nest is 
unlike that of any other flycatcher of our acquaintance; shallow, thin- 
walled, often bottomless, or nearly so, yet so securely placed on a horizontal 
branch, and its materials so firmly interwoven and glued by spider’s webs 
and apparently by some other adhesive material, that it frequently out- 
lasts the winter’s storms, though the birds seem never to use the nest a 
second time. It is built mainly of fine grasses, thin strips of bark, small 
roots and various plant fibres, and covered outside by spider’s webs, bits 
of moss, lichens and similar material so as to closely resemble the branch 
upon which it is placed. Ordinarily it is not less than ten feet from the 
ground and occasionally is found at an elevation of forty or fifty feet, more 
often from twenty to thirty. 
The eggs are usually three, occasionally but two, more rarely four. They 
are white or cream-colored, heavily spotted about the larger end with 
markings of brown and purple, and average .71 by .53 inches. 
According to Bendire “the ordinary call note sounds like ‘pee-a-wee’ 
or ‘see-e-wee,’ long drawn out and plaintive in sound; apparently a short 
note like ‘pee-eer,’ ‘phee-hee,’ or ‘hee-ee’ is also given, this if possible is 
a still more mournful strain than the former, but it is not so frequently 
heard. No two persons would put them down alike.” After sunset the 
Wood Pewee not infrequently breaks into a twittering song of considerable 
length and variety which it utters while on the wing and flying irregularly 
here and there as if in great excitement. 
The food consists very largely of insects taken on the wing, yet it not 
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