150 PEWIT FLYCATCHER. 
cottage, and such like places.* ‘The outside is composed of mud, 
mixed with moss, is generally large and solid, and lined with flax and 
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 in 
one season. mk : 
In a particular part.of Mr. Bartram’s woods, with which I am ac- 
quainted, by the side of a small stream, in a cave, five or six feet high, 
formed by the undermining of the water below, and the projection of: 
two large rocks above, — ; 
ae 
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 Subelicbaeed beeches eet 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 place 
was solitary, and he was seldom disturbed. In the month of April, 
one fatal Saturday, a party of boys from the city, armed with guns, 
dealing indiscriminate destruction among the feathered tribes around 
them, directed their murderous course this way, and, within my 
hearing, destroyed both parents of this old and peaceful settlement., 
For two successive years, and, I believe, to this day, there has been 
no Pewee seen about this place. This circumstance almost con-- 
vinces me that birds, in many instances, return to the same spots to 
breed ; and who knows, but, like the savage nations of Indians, they 
may usurp a kind of exclusive right of tenure to particular districts, 
where they themselves have been reared? 
The notes of the Pewee, like those of the Blue-Bird, are pleasing, 
not for any melody they contain, but from the ideas of spring and re- 
turning verdure, with all the sweets of this lovely season, which are 
associated with his simple but lively ditty. Towards the middle of 
June, he becomes nearly silent; and late in the fall gives us a few 
farewell and melancholy repetitions, that recall past imagery, and 
make the decayed and withered face of nature appear still more mel- 
ancholy. 
The Pewit is six inches and a half in length, and nine and a half 
broad; the upper parts are of a dark dusky olive ; the plumage of the 
* The peice manners of this species, and indeed of the greater part of the 
smaller Z'yrannule, bear a considerable resemblance to those of the Common 
Spotted Flycatcher of this country, which the dilatation at the base of the bill and 
the color of the plumage render still greater. The peculiar droop of the tail, and 
occasional rise and depression of the feathers on the crown, which are somewhat 
elongated — the motionless perch on some hare branch—the impatient call —° 
the motion of the tail— and the sudden dart after some insect, and return to the 
same spot —are all close resemblances to the manners delineated by our author ; 
and the resort by streams, bridges, or caves, with the manner and place of building 
—even the color of the eggs —are not to be mistaken. In one instance our Fly- 
catcher and the Tyrannulce disagree ; the former possess no pleasing notes; its 
only cries are a single, rather harsh and monotonous-click end a shrill peep The 
song of the Tyrannule is “ simple,” but “lively.” — Ep. 
