286 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
though somewhat like that of the Goldfinch’s plaintive note. 
Their song-note is delivered energetically and forcibly, the 
head being tossed or thrown back, and the tail depressed. It 
resembles the syllables che-beé-u, and is distinct from all other 
notes that I have ever heard. 
Nests of this species which I have lately examined are cup- 
shaped, but shallow. They are usually built very near the 
ground, and, according to Mr. Henshaw, in an upright fork. 
(B) minimus. Least Flycatcher. Least “‘Pewee.” ‘Chebec.” 
(A common summer-resident throughout Massachusetts.) 
(a). Five inches long or more. Except in size, scarcely 
different from E. trailli (A), unless somewhat grayer. Notes 
and eggs, however, distinct. 
(®). The nest is placed from five to twenty feet above the 
ground, on a horizontal limb (frequently where it forks), occa- 
sionally one of a shade-tree, but more often one of a tree in 
some orchard or wood. It is sometimes built in a crotch, and 
then resembles the Goldfinch’s nest. It is composed of fine 
grasses, rootlets (and pine-needles), firmly woven together 
with caterpillar’s silk, cobwebs, cottony or woollen substances, 
and such accidental materials as thread or string. In Eastern 
Massachusetts, four or five eggs are usually laid in the first (or 
second) week of June; occasionally others in July. They 
average ‘60 X ‘50 of an inch, and are white, or creamy. 
(c). The Least Flycatchers are common summer-residents 
almost throughout New England, though rare in some of the 
northern portions. They reach Massachusetts in the first week 
of May, and remain there until the middle of September. 
They frequent both woods and orchards, in cultivated districts 
rather preferring the latter, particularly if someavhat neglected 
and unfrequented. As arule, they do not resort to pine-groves, 
or to very thick woods, as the Wood Pewees often do. They 
prefer woodland composed of birches, maples, and beeches, and 
do not show the fondness for low growth and wet lands, so 
often observable in Traill’s Flycatcher. They gencrally return 
every year to their chosen home, and apparently, when once 
