36 



The Hawkeye Ornithologist and Oologist. 



suspended to two or three small 

 twigs. It consists of a ball of moss 

 -with an opening at the top, lined 

 with feathers and down, and con- 

 tains from six to ten eggs not much 

 larger than those of the humming- 

 bird. They are creamy-white, some- 

 times pinky-white, covered with ob- 

 scure speckles of purple-grey. Their 

 nests are from six to twenty feet 

 above the ground. This is the small- 

 eat of British birds. 



[to be contjntjed.] 



For the Hawkeye 0. and 0. 



CANADIAN FLYCATCHERS. 



BY WM. L. KELLS, LISTOWEL, ONTARIO. 



THE WOOD PEWEE. 



(Contopus virens.) 

 In form and plumage this species 

 strongly resembles the more common 

 nhcebe flycatcher, but it is smaller in 

 size, and its song-notes and habitat 

 are very different. Among our 

 summer visitors it is late in its arrival, 

 and as its sojourn here is passed 

 chiefly in the wild woods, and it sel- 

 dom comes out in the open fields, it 

 is very fitly called the wood pewee, 

 though there are other members of 

 this family, much less known, whose 

 homes are also in the wilderness. 



The wood pewee does not frequent 

 low swampy places, but takes up its 

 abode in the high, hardwood tim- 

 bered districts, where there is deep 

 shade, and an abundance of dead 

 twig's and branches shooting across 

 the gloom, and where it finds its in- 

 sect food abundant. Taking its stand 

 on a naked limb, it for a few mo- 

 ments glances around; its tail mean- 

 while wagging with that 'peculiar 

 motion common to the flycatchers, 

 then darting off, and after a circling 

 sweep of a few rods returns to its 

 starting place, quivering its wings, 

 and uttering its peculiar notes, 



"wir-a-we we-too," and which are often 

 repeated by another of its species at 

 a distance. These rather dismal 

 notes, uttered in a sad tone, are 

 but little noticed until most of our 

 other summer songsters have become 

 silent; then when the fallen leaves 

 and chilly winds of autumn herald 

 the approach of winter, this sad and 

 doleful ditty becomes conspicuous, as. 

 it echoes in the silent woods in mel- 

 ancholy strains, as though the little 

 performer was bewailing the depart- 

 ing glories of summer, the approach- 

 ing desolation of nature, and the loss 

 of all that is lovely and gay; which 

 noticed in conjunction with the scen- 

 ery of the surrounding landscape, 

 may often fill the mind of the student 

 of nature with sad reflections, and 

 gloomy anticipations. As the fall 

 advances and the leafless woods as- 

 sume a barren and desolate aspect, 

 no longer able to procure its insect 

 food, the pewee ceases to battle with 

 the elements of nature, leaves our 

 woods and forests for a season to the 

 sway of the icy monarch, and seeks 

 a refuge from the winter's storms in 

 the evergreen valleys of the South. 



Though the summer habitat of 

 this species is mostly in the high 

 woods, yet some pairs of them will 

 occasionally take up their homes in 

 large orchards, and have their nest- 

 ing places near human habitations. 



This species is about six inches in 

 length. The plumage on the upper 

 parts of the wings, tail and head, is 

 brownish-black; inclined to olive on 

 the back; the throat and breast is 

 white, and the lower parts yellowish. 

 Its nest is usually placed on a hori- 

 zontal branch, sometimes where it is 

 forked, and sometimes where small 

 twigs project on each side, and gen- 

 erally high from the ground. The 

 nest, a shallow structure, is composed 

 of moss, fibers of various barks; neat- 

 ly lined with fine dry grass and hair, 

 the outside being patched with lichen 



