66 



Bird Studies. 



Phoebe. 



Sayornis phcebe (Lath,). 



head, of a general dusky olive color above, white below washed with faint 

 yellow on the belly, and with gray brown on the sides and throat. This is 

 the Phoebe or Bridge Pewee, which is instantly recog- 

 nized by its call note — "he names himself Phoebe" — and 

 its constantly wagging tail, which is as characteristic as his 

 note. The bird is about seven inches long. It is very sociable, and with the 

 advent of man has largely abandoned former nesting sites, which were pre- 

 sumably under banks and on ledges in caves. Now any rafter forming a 

 shelf, whether under a bridge, on the piazza, or in the barns or outbuildings, 

 affords him nesting sites. In such places a bulky, shallow nest of mosses and 

 mud, lined with hairs and grasses, is located. Four to six white eggs are laid 

 which sometimes are dotted with a few reddish spots. About three quarters 

 of an inch long, they are nearly three fifths of an inch in their other diameter. 

 This is a bird of Eastern North America. Breeding from the Carolinas 

 north to Newfoundland, it winters from its southern breeding points to Cuba 

 and Eastern Mexico. 



Say's Phcebe is a Western species which has been recorded frorn Illinois, , 



Wisconsin, Iowa, and Massachusetts. It is a bird in general build and size much 



like our Bridge Pewee but rather larger. Light brownish 



Say's Phcebe. gray above, it has a blackish tail. The lower parts are 



much like the upper on the throat and breast, but the belly, 



sides, and flanks are a warm cinnamon brown. Its nesting is very similar to 



that of its congener, as are its eggs. 



RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD. YOUNG MALE- 



This is the only 

 hummingbird of East- 



Ruby-throated 

 Hummingbird. 



Trochilus colubris Linn. 



ern North America. It 

 has been so frequently 

 described and eulo- 

 gized as to have be- 

 come familiar to all. 



