WOOD PEWEE 



107 



This bird's fondness for watery places is ex- 

 plained by its manner of getting a living. Its 

 food must be caught on the wing; and the multi- 

 tude of sawyers, longlegs, gnats, Mayflies, and 

 mosquitoes that dance above a stream are just 

 to its liking. 



Phoebe's color is dusky 

 olive, with a pearl-white 

 breast. He wears a dark 

 crown cap, and the outer 

 tail feathers have a rim of 

 white. There is no song, 

 but a monotonous note of 

 ' 6 Phoebe, phoebe, pewit, 

 phoebe." Although the 

 spring arrival is so early, 

 it is May before the four or five white eggs are 

 laid. 



The- Wood Pewee's call is softer and more 

 plaintive — a drawling ' ' pe-wee, pee-ah-wee. ' ' 

 Its nest, high among the trees, is of soft fibres 

 covered outside with lichens ; not so deep as the 

 Gnatcatcher's but saddled on a limb in a similar 

 way, so as to appear from below like a mossy 

 knot. 



Other Flycatchers who visit us are the 

 Crested Flycatcher, who has the peculiar habit 

 of weaving a cast snake-skin into the lining of 

 his nest, and the smaller Acadian Flycatcher. 



WOOD PEWEE 

 Length 6^ inches 



