230 PE WIT FL Y CA TCHER. 



A dark-browed cliff, o'ertopped with fern and flowers, 

 Harjgs, grimly low'ring, o'er the glassy deep ; 



Above through every chink the woodbines creep, 



And smooth-barked beeches spread their arms around, 



Whose roots cling twisted round the rocky steep : 

 A more sequestered scene is nowhere found, 

 For contemplation deep, and silent thought profound, — 



in this cave I knew the pewit to build for several years. The 

 place was solitary, and he was seldom disturbed. In the 

 month of April, one fatal Saturday, a party of boys from 

 the city, armed with guns, dealing indiscriminate destruction 

 among the feathered tribes around them, directed their mur- 

 derous course this way, and, within my hearing, destroyed 

 both parents of this old and peaceful settlement. For two 

 successive years, and I believe to this day, there has been no 

 pewee seen about this place. This circumstance almost con- 

 vinces me that birds, in many instances, return to the same 

 spots to breed ; and who knows but, like the savage nations 

 of Indians, they may usurp a kind of exclusive right of tenure 

 to particular districts, where they themselves have been 

 reared ? 



The notes of the pewee, like those of the blue bird, are 

 pleasing, not for any melody they contain, but from the ideas 

 of spring and returning verdure, with all the sweets of this 

 lovely season, which are associated with his simple but lively 

 ditty. Towards the middle of June, he becomes nearly silent ; 

 and late in the fall gives us a few farewell and melancholy 

 repetitions, that recall past imagery, and make the decayed 

 and withered face of nature appear still more melancholy. 



The pewit is six inches and a half in length, and nine and 

 a half broad ; the upper parts are of a dark dusky olive ; the 

 plumage of the head, like that of the two preceding, is loose, 

 subcrested, and of a deep brownish black ; wings and tail, 

 deep dusky ; the former edged, on every feather, with yellowish 

 white, the latter forked, and widening remarkably towards the 

 end ; bill, formed exactly like that of the king bird ; whole 

 lower parts, a pale delicate yellow ; legs and bill, wholly 



