64 
MUSCICAPA RAPAX. 
and branches shooting across the gloom ; generally 
low situations ; builds its nest on the upper side of * 
limb or branch, forming it outwardly of moss, but usiw 
no mud, and lining it with Tarious soft materials. 
female lays five white eggs ; and the first brood lea^^ 
the nest about the middle of June. 
This species is an exceeding expert flycatcher, f 
loves to sit on the high dead branches, amid the gloo'* 
of the woods, calling out in a feeble, plaintive toO^' 
peto way, peto way, pee way ; occasionally darting afw 
insects ; sometimes making a circular sweep of thity 
or forty yards, snapping up numbers in its way ww 
great adroitness ; and returning to its position and ch»>’ 
as before. In the latter part of August, its notes 
almost the only ones to be heard in the woods ; abo"! 
which time also, it even api)roacbes the city, wher« ’ 
have frequently ob.servcd it busily engaged under tre<!* 
in solitary courts, gardens, &c. feeding and traini''f- 
its young to their profession. About the middle ^ 
September, it retires to the south, a full month befo>^ 
the other. 
Length, six inches ; breadth, ten ; back, dusky olit*' 
inclining to greenish ; head, subcrested, and browni'’® 
black; tail, forked and widening towards the tip*' 
lower parts, pale yelloivish white. Tlie only discrii^ 
nating marks between this and the preceding, are tp 
size, and the colour of the lower mandible, which, 
this, is yellow ; in the pewee, black. The femal« '' 
difficult to be distinguished fi*om the male. 
This species Ls far more numerous than the precedi^' 
and, probably, winters much fartlier south. The pc"' , 
w*as numerous in North and South Carolina in Febriakf' 
but the wood pewee had not made its appearance ’j 
the lower parts of Georgia, even so late as the Ifitb ^ 
March. 
