The Say Phoebe 
such attempts that variations—and heroes—are bred. 
Without doubt, there is a considerable re-sorting of population as 
winter approaches. Phoebes which have summered in the foothills fall 
back upon the lowlands. Northern colonists deploy over the Colorado 
Desert or drop into the comfortable depths of the Colorado River Valley, 
where they have never been known to breed. Outlying bridge-tenders 
are driven into the shelter of farmhouses, or else take refuge in villages; 
and thus, oftentimes, a welcome relationship, broken off by the cares of 
summer, is resumed as between man and bird. “Swat the fly” is the 
motto of the careful housewife. What more suitable, therefore, than to 
have a cheerful and serviceable colored person to attend to the same 
duty, outside! 
No. 171 
Say’s Phoebe 
A. O. U. No. 457. Sayornis sayus (Bonaparte). 
Synonyms.— Say’s Pewee. Western Phoebe. 
Description. — Adults: General color drab (grayish brown to dark hair-brown, 
darker on pileum and auriculars, shading through upper tail-coverts to brownish black 
of tail; wings fuscous, the coverts and exposed webs of tertials edged with lighter 
grayish brown; underparts cinnamon-buff, clear on belly and crissum, shaded and 
blended with drab on sides of breast, paler, cinnamon-drab, on throat; axillars and lin¬ 
ing of wings light buff or cream-buff. Bill and feet black; iris brown. Young birds 
are more extensively fulvous, and are marked by two cinnamomeous bands on wings 
(formed by tips of middle and greater coverts). Length of adult male about 177.8 
(7.00); wing 105 (4.14); tail 82 (3.23); bill 15.7 (.62); tarsus 20 (.79). Female averages 
smaller. 
Recognition Marks. —Sparrow size; drab coloring; cinnamon-colored belly; 
melancholy notes; frequents barns and outbuildings, or cliffs. 
Nesting. — Nest: Composed of dried grasses, moss, plant-fibers, woolly materials 
of all sorts, and hair; placed on ledges, under eaves of outbuildings, under bridges, or 
on cliffs. Eggs: 3 to 6, usually 5; dull white, very rarely dotted with reddish brown. 
Av. of 50 eggs in the M. C. O. colls.: 19.6 x 15 (.77 x .59); index 76. Range 17.8-21.3 
by 14.2-16 (.70-.84 by .56-.63). Season: Varying with locality—March-June; two 
broods. 
General Range. —“Western North America. Breeds from central Alaska, 
northwestern Mackenzie, northeastern Alberta, southeastern Saskatchewan, and cen¬ 
tral North Dakota south to Lower California, Arizona, southern New Mexico, western 
Iowa, and western Kansas; winters from central California, southern Arizona, southern 
New Mexico, and central Texas to southern Lower California, Vera Cruz, and Puebla; 
accidental in Wisconsin, Missouri, and Massachusetts’’ (A. O. U. Com.). Rare or 
wanting in summer in most of the Pacific coastal region. 
