144 BIRDS 



turned direction is marvellous, is it not? Birds almost 

 never get lost. 



Phoebes like a covering over their heads to protect their 

 nests from spring rains, so you will see a domesticated 

 couple going about the place investigating niches under the 

 piazza roof, beams in an empty barn or shed, and projec- 

 tions under bridges and trestles — express trains may 

 thunder overhead so that the site be covered. By the 

 middle of April a neat nest of moss and lichen, plastered to- 

 gether with mud and lined with long hair or wool, if sheep 

 are near, is made in the vicinity of their home of the year 

 before. The nursery is exquisitely fashioned. 



From purely selfish motives it pays to cultivate neigh- 

 bors ever on the lookout for flies, wasps. May -beetles, click 

 beetles, elm destroyers, the moth of the cutworm, and 

 coimtless other winged pests. The first nest is usually so 

 infested by lice that the phoebes either tear it down in July, 

 and build a new one on its site, or else make the second 

 nest at a little distance from the first. The parents of two 

 broods of from four to six ravenously himgry, insectivorous 

 young, with an instinctive desire to return to their old 

 home year after year, should surely meet no discourage- 

 ment. 



The Wood Pewee 



Length — 6.5 inches. A trifle larger than the Enghsh 

 sparrow. 



Male and Female — ^Dusky brownish olive above, darkest on 

 head; lighter imderneath, and with a yellowish tinge on 

 the gray under parts. Dusky wings and tail, the wing 

 coverts tipped with soiled white, forming two indistinct 

 bars. Wings longer than tail. 



