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WOOD PEWEE FLYCATCHER. 

 MUSCICAPA RAPAX. 

 [Plate XIII.— Fig. 5.] 



Muscicapa virens^ Linn. Syst. 327.— Lath. Syn, II, 350.— Id. Supp. p. 174, No. 82.— 

 Catesb. I, 54, Jig. 1. — Le gobe-mouche brun de la Caroline, Burr. IV, 543. — Muscicapa 

 acadica, Gmel. Syst. I, p. 947.— Jrct. Zool. 387, M. 270.— Peale's Museum, JVo. 6660. 



I HAVE given the name Wood Pewee to this species, to dis- 

 criminate it from the preceding, which it resembles so much in 

 form and plumage as scarcely to be distinguished from it, but by 

 an accurate examination of both. Yet in manners, mode of build- 

 ing, period of migration and notes, the two species differ greatly. 

 The Pewee is among the first birds that visit us in spring, frequent- 

 ing creeks, building in caves and under arches of bridges; the 

 Wood Pewee, the subject of our present account, is among the latest 

 of our summer birds, seldom arriving before the twelfth or fifteenth 

 of May; frequenting the shadiest high timbered woods, where there 

 is little underwood, and abundance of dead twigs and branches 

 shooting across the gloom ; generally in low situations ; builds its 

 nest on the upper side of a limb or branch, forming it outwardly 

 of moss ; but using no mud ; and lining it with various soft mate- 

 rials. The female lays five white eggs; and the first brood leave 

 the nest about the middle of June. 



This species is an exceeding expert Flycatcher. It loves to 

 sit on the high dead branches, amid the gloom of the woods, call- 

 ing out in a feeble plaintive tone, peto ivay; peto ivay ; pee ivay; oc- 

 casionally darting after insects ; sometimes making a circular sweep 

 of thirty or forty yards, snapping up numbers in its way with great 

 adroitness; and returning to its position and chant as before. In 



VOL. II. X 



