150 PEWIT FLYCATCHER. * 
cottage, and such like places.* The outside is composed of yi, 
mixed with moss, is generally large and solid, and lined with flax hate 
horse hair. The eggs are five, pure white, with two or three dots of 
red near the great end. I have known them rear three broods 1: 
one season. : : 
In a particular part of Mr. Bartram’s woods, with which J am «-- 
quainted, by the side of a small stream, in a cave, five or six feet hiv. 
formed by the undermining of the water below, and the projection o* 
two large rocks above, — 
There down smooth, glistening rocks the rivulet pours, 
Till.in a pool its silent waters sleep, 
A dark-browed cliff, o’ertopped with fern and flowers, 
Hangs, grimly lowering, o’er the glassy deep ; 
Above through every chink the woodbines creep, 
And smooth-barked beeches spread their arms around, 
Whose roots cling twisted round the rocky steep ; 
A more sequestered scene is no where found, 
For contemplation deep, and silent thought profound ;— 
in this cave I knew the Pewit to build for several years. The pia: « 
was solitary, and he was seldom disturbed. In the month of Apr’. 
one fatal Saturday, a party of boys from the city, armed with gun. 
dealing indiscriminate destruction among the feathered tribes aro: 
them, directed their murderous course this way, and, within 1... 
hearing, destroyed both parents of this old and peaceful settleme:. 
For two successive years, and, I believe, to this day, there has b.- : 
no Pewee seen about this place. This circumstance almost ¢ ~.; 
vinces me that birds, in many instances, return to the same spots ': 
breed ; and who knows, but, like the savage nations of Indians, 1! 
may usurp a kind of exclusive right of tenure to particular distr.¢.. 
where they themselves have been reared ? 
The notes of the Pewee, like those of the Blue-Bird, are pleasi: 
not for any melody they contain, but from the ideas of spring and ~- 
turning verdure, with all the sweets of this lovely season, which »r 
associated with his simple but lively ditty. Towards the middle .* 
June, he becomes nearly silent; and late in the fall gives us a t*» 
farewell and melancholy repetitions, tnat recall past imagery, > 
make the decayed and withered face of nature appear stil] more r 
ancholy. 
The Pewit is six inches and a half in length, and nine and ak + 
broad; the upper parts are of a dark dusky olive ; the plumage of the 
* The general manners of this species, and indeed of the greater part of the 
smaller! Ty, 772lce, bear a considerable resemblance to those of the Cominei 
Spotted Flycaicu. of this country, which the dilatation at the base of the bill anc 
the color of the plumage render still greater. The peculiar droop of the tail, ="? 
occasional rise and depression of the feathers’ on the crown, which are somew 
elongated —the motionless perch on some bare branch—the impatient cal: -- 
the motion of the tail—and the sudden dart after some insect, and return td the 
same spot —are all close resemblances to the manners delineated by our auther 
and the resort by streams, bridges, or caves, with the manner and place of build. 
—even the color of the eggs —are not to be mistaken. In one instance our Fy. 
catcher and the Tyrannulce disagree ; the former posseg3 no pleasing notes; us 
only cries are a single, rather harsh and monotonous click <ud a shrill peep The 
song of the Tyrannule is “ simple,” but “lively.” — Ep. ’ - 
us 
