Species IV. MUSCICAPA RAP AX* 
WOOD PEWEE FLYCATCHER. 
[Plate XIII. Fig. 5.] 
Mitscicapa virens, Linn. Syst. 327. — Latii. Si/n. n., 350. — Id. Svpp. p. 174, No. 
82. — Catesb. I., 54, fig. 1. — Le tjobe-nwurhe brun de la Caroline, Buff, iv., 543. — 
Mitscicapa acadica, Gmel. Syst. I., p. 947. — -Arct. Zool. 387, No. 270. 
I have s;iven the name Wood Pewee to this species, to discriminate 
o J- 7 
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 building, period of migration and 
notes, the two species differ greatly. The Pewee is among the first 
birds that visit us in spring, frequenting 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 out- 
wardly of moss ; but using no mud ; and lining it with various soft 
materials. 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, calling out in a 
feeble plaintive tone, peto tuay ; pcto xoay ; fee way ; occasionally dart- 
ing 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 the latter part of 
August its notes are almost the only ones to be heard in the woods ; 
about which time, also, it even approaches the city, where I have 
frequently observed it busily engaged under trees, in solitary courts, 
gardens, &c., feeding and training its young to their profession. About 
the middle of September it retires to the south, a full month before the 
other. 
Length six inches, breadth ten ; back dusky olive, inclining to 
greenish ; head subcrested and brownish black ; tail forked and widen- 
* Muscicapa virens, Linn., which name should be adopted. 
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