The Black Phoebe 
supplemented by tidy manners, 
too, and though the black suit 
must last a season, the immaculate 
shirt-front is fresh laundered every 
day beside the running brook or 
wayside watering trough. 
The Black Phoebe is a prince of 
flycatchers. His record for the capture 
of “animal food” is 99-41/100 pure, and 
the trifling admixture of vegetable mat¬ 
ter represented by 59/100 of one per 
cent is judged to be chiefly acci¬ 
dental. An insect roosting on a 
blackberry is likely to be 
snapped up perch and all; 
but the only fruit which 
Phoebe is suspected of taking 
on purpose is the dainty 
elderberry. As a flycatcher, 
then, nigricans displays a 
tireless energy and no little 
adroitness. When seated, the 
bird is always turning his head 
about in quest of game, and the momen¬ 
tary sallies from weed-top or fence-post 
or bridge-rail represent an enormous 
consumption of flying things before the 
day is done. Of the kind of insects 
taken, it is enough to say that they are 
chiefly such as frequent the vicinity of 
water. Anything that spells water, 
spells insects, and as a consequence 
Phoebe is found haunting the horse- 
trough and the tank-house, 
no less than the stream-side 
and the fringes of lakes. The 
farmyard with its lowing 
cattle and scented by-products offers ideal attraction for flies, and so, 
for flycatchers. Besides, if the flies are troublesome about the kitchen 
door, Phoebe will help clear them away if you will let him. 
The natural breeding haunts of the Black Phoebe are cliffs or low 
ramparts overlooking streams. Here in some niche which offers at 
Taken in 
the Ojai 
Photo by Dickey 
A PRIVATE ENGAGEMENT 
THE LOWERMOST YOUNGSTER SHOWN IN THE SUCCEEDING CUT IS 
GETTING HIS PORTION 
