82 Bird Day Book 



PHOEBE 



A 



PHOEBE is always associated with old bridges and bubbling 

 brooks. Nearly every bridge which is at all adapted for the 

 purpose has its Phoebe home beneath it, to which the same 

 pair of birds will return year after year, sometimes building 

 a new nest, sometimes repairing the old. They seem to be of a 

 nervous temperament, for, as they sit upon their usual look-out 

 perch, their tails are continually twitching as though in anticipation 

 of the insects that are sure to pass sooner or later. 



A jerky, emphatic "phoe-be" with the accent on the second syl- 

 lable, and still further accented by a vigorous flirt of the tail, com- 

 prises the principle note of this bird. 



The nest is made of mud, grass and moss, plastered to the sides 

 of beams or logs under bridges, culverts or barns. In May or June 

 four or five white eggs are laid. 



These birds breed in North America east of the Rockies, north 

 to southern Canada, and winter in the southern United States and 

 southward. 



— Bird Guide. 



