OF NEW ENGLAND. 281 
scribable “ dark olive-brown ;” sides (almost meeting across the 
breast), shaded streakily with the same. Under parts, other- 
wise white or yellowish. Wings, with more or less obscure 
white edging. Bill black above only. 
(b). The nest is much less finished and artistic than that of 
the Wood Pewee, and is, moreover, nearly always placed in an 
evergreen or orchard-tree. It is frequently built in a pine, 
from fifteen to even fifty feet above the ground, being placed 
in the fork of a horizontal limb. One before me is shallow, 
and is composed of twigs, fine strips of bark, stalks of field- 
weeds, and a little moss. The eggs of each set are usually 
five, average about °85:‘65 of an inch, and are in Massachu- 
setts laid in the second week of June. They are white, or 
creamy, spotted with lilac and reddish-brown. 
(c). The Olive-sided Flycatchers may be classed among 
those birds, who are, at least in Massachusetts, neither rare 
nor common. They reach this State about the middle of May, 
and leave it in September. They may more often be found 
among evergreens than any others of their tribe, and most 
often occur in orchards or among pines. They are expert fly- 
catchers, and have the habit of selecting a post, frequently a 
dead stump or decayed limb, to which they continually return. 
In common with other.members of their family, they have a 
quarrelsome disposition, in consequence of which they often 
engage in broils, even among themselves. They are, however, 
no more gregarious than other flycatchers. 
;(d). Their notes possess the tone which largely character- 
izes this family of birds. Sometimes they are merely queru- 
lous whistles, like pu-pu-pu (often somewhat lengthened), and 
at other times form a distinct song-note, ‘‘eh phéebéé, or h’phe- 
béd, almost exactly in the tone of the circular tin whistle or 
bird call, being loud, shrill, and guttural at the commence- 
ment.” (Nuttall.) These notes are subject to marked varia- 
tions, which I find it impossible to describe satisfactorily. 
(B) virens. Wood Pewee. 
(In Massachusetts, a common summer-resident.) 
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