WOOD PEWEE 221 



sitting on a low limb near me, pe-a-wee, pe-a-wee, etc., 

 five or six times at short and regular intervals, look- 

 ing about all the 'while, and then, naively, pee-a-oo, 

 emphasizing the first syllable, and begins again. The 

 last is, in emphasis, like the scream of a hen-hawk. It 

 flies off occasionally a few feet, and catches an insect 

 and returns to its perch between the bars, not allow- 

 ing this to interrupt their order. 



June 27, 1858. Find two wood pewees' nests, made 

 like the one I have. One on a dead horizontal limb of 

 a small oak, fourteen feet from ground, just on a hori- 

 zontal fork and looking as old as the limb, color of the 

 branch, three eggs far advanced. The other, with two 

 eggs, was in a similar position exactly over a fork, but 

 on a living branch of a slender white oak, eighteen feet 

 from ground ; lichens without, then pine-needles, lined 

 with usnea, willow down. Both nests three to five feet 

 from main stem. 



Aug. 13, 1858. I come to get the now empty nests of 

 the wood pewees found June 27th. In each case, on 

 approaching the spot, I hear the sweet note of a pewee 

 lingering about, and this alone would have guided me 

 within four or five rods. I do not know why they 

 should linger near the empty nest, but perhaps they 

 have built again near there or intend to use the same 

 nest again (?). Their full strain is pe-ah-ee? (perhaps 

 repeated), rising on the last syllable and emphasizing 

 that, then pe'-ee, emphasizing the first and falling on 

 the last, all very sweet and rather plaintive, suggesting 

 innocence and confidence in you. In this case the bird 

 uttered only its last strain, regularly at intervals. 



