NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 307 



was well advanced. They resemble eggs of the Olive-sided Flycatcher, but are 

 somewhat smaller than that species." Mr. Crandall has in his collection a set of 

 three eggs of this species collected by Mr. W. O. Howard in the Huachuca Moun- 

 tains, Arizona, July 8, 1897. The nest was saddled on the branch of a yellow pine, 

 near the extremity of the limb, sixty feet from the ground. The nest was composed 

 almost entirely of dried grass of a rich straw color. On the outside it was artistically 

 covered with bits of lichen and bark, the green tips and buds of pine. The outside 

 depth is 1.95 by 3.80 inches, outside diameter. The eggs are of a rich cream color 

 blotched and spotted in a confluent ring about the large end with chestnut brown 

 and various shades of gray. The sizes are .86x.61, .81x.61, .83x.61 inches. 



461. WOOD PEWEE. Contopus v^rpis (Linn.) Geog. Dis.— Eastern North 

 America to the edge of the Great Plains, north to Canada, south in winter to Eastern 

 Mexico and Guatemala. . , , > 



A common and a well-known bird in Eastern United States. By those who have 

 a superficial knowledge of birds, it is often confounded with, the common Pewee, 

 but it is considerably smaller, slenderer, and rather darker in color. The notes of 

 both birds are very similar; those of the Pewee consist of two syllables, quickly and 

 sharply uttered, while those of the Wood Pewee are of two, sometimes three sylla- 

 bles, pe-icec or pe-a-wec, repeated at all hours of the day, but especially after sunset. 

 The notes are truly sad but sweet, less emphatic, much slower and softer than those 

 of the Phcebe and, as Mr. Thomas Mcllwraith says: "To human ears the notes of the 

 male appear to be the outpourings of settled sorrow, but to his mate the impressions 

 conveyed may be very different."* The nest of the Wood Pewee is usually placed 

 either on the upper surface of a limb, or in a horizontal, fork. It is generally built 

 in a large tree in the interior or on the border of woods, or by the roadside. Very 

 frequently the nest is placed on the horizontal branches of apple trees in orchards, 

 and even in shade trees, in close proximity to houses, or on those along river banks. 

 The distance from the ground ranges from six to fifty feet. The nest is a very 

 pretty, flat, compact structure, with a thick wall and a thin floor — often the branch 

 fqrms a portion of the bottom of tl>e nest, and it is frequently so thin that the eggs 

 can be seen from beneath. Slender or split grasses, weed-fibres, narrow strips of 

 grapevine bark, and pieces of moss-fibres make up the nest proper. Externally it is 

 covered with pieces of lichens, which are held in position by webs, and the structure 

 thus ornamented is rendered indistinguishable from a natural protuberance of the 

 brailch itself. A large series of the Wood Pewees' nests which I have personally 

 taken in the past ten years are .befpre me. The best of them are far inferior in 

 design to even the poorest nests built by the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and Ruby- 

 throated Hummingbird, whose structures have high walls, gracefully turned brims, 

 deeply cupped inferiors and highly ^rtistic, lichen-covered exteriors. Some of the 

 nests of the Wood Pewee are scantily ornamented with lichens, are very shallow, 

 and at once suggest a one-story, flirnsy, poverty-stricken home. The nesting time 

 is in the latter part of May or in June. The eggs are usually three, rarely four in 

 number, witjia creamy-white ground of va:rying intensity; the markings are formed 

 in a wreath around the larger end, or around the center; these are spots. of reddish- 

 brown, burnt umber and lilac-gray. In their short diameter the eggs measure from 

 .50 to .59; in their long diameter from .65 to .79; the average size is about .74x.55. 



462. WESTEEN WOOD PEWEE. Gontopus richardsonii (Swains.) Geog. 

 Dist. — Western North America, from the Great Plains to the Pacific; north to British 



* Birds of Ontario, p. 181. 



