FLYCATCHERS 39 



The Phoebe is the best known member of a group of small 

 Flycatchers which the beginner, and not infrequently the 

 advanced student, names with more or less uncertainty. 

 Fortunately for the field student, and as if to compensate 

 for their close resemblance in plumage, they all possess 

 distinctive, quite unlike, and easily recognizable calls, and 

 consequently can readily be identified by their voices if 

 not by their colors. 



The Phoebe shows so marked a fondness for our society, 

 nesting under our piazzas, in barns or outbuildings, and 

 calls his pewit-phmbe so plainly, wagging his tail the while 

 in a friendly, sociable kind of a way, that there is never 

 any doubt about his identity; but we will not make the 

 acquaintance of his less common, less confiding relatives 

 so readily. 



The Phoebe's 4-6 white eggs (rarely with a few brown 

 spots) are laid the latter half of April. 



OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER 

 Nuttalornis borealis. Case 8, Fig. 59 



With the general appearance of a large Phcebe, but with the 

 breast and sides the color of the back, and a tuft of white feathers 

 on each flank. L. 74. 



Range. North America; nests from northern New England 

 northward (southward in the Alleghanies to North Carolina); 

 winters in the tropics. 



Washington, casual T. V. Ossining, tolerably common T. V., 

 May 20; Aug. 15-Sept. 16. Cambridge, rare T. V., May 20- 

 June 6; formerly not uncommon S. R., one Sept. record. Glen 

 Ellyn, not common T. V., May 13-June 11; Aug. n-Sept. 15. 

 SE. Minn., common T. V., May 10-Sept. 9. 



To most of us the Olive-sided is known as a rare migrant 

 passing northward in May, among the later transients, and 

 southward in September. When traveling the bird retains 

 the fondness of its kind for perching on tall tree-tops, but 

 its loud, unmistakable, whistled "come right here, come 

 right here" is usually heard only on the nesting ground. 



