4i6 
FLYCATCHERS. 
far they proceed to the South at this season is not satisfac- 
torily ascertained ; a few, no doubt, winter in the milder parts 
of the Union, as Wilson saw them in February in the swamps 
of North and South Carolina, where they were feeding on 
smilax berries, and occasionally even giving their well-known 
notes; but in the winter and early spring of 1830, while em- 
ployed in an extensive pedestrian journey from South Carolina 
to Florida and Alabama, I never heard or met with an individ- 
ual ol the species. Audubon found them abundant in the 
Floridas in winter. 
These faithful messengers of spring return to Pennsylvania as 
early as the first week in March, remain till October, and 
sometimes nearly to the middle of November. In Massa- 
chusetts they arrive about the beginning of April, and at first 
chiefly frequent the woods. 
Their favorite resort is near streams, ponds, or stagnant 
waters, about bridges, caves, and barns, where they choose to 
breed ; and, in short, wherever there is a good prospect for 
obtaining their insect food. Near such places our little hunter 
sits on the roof of some out-building, on a stake of the fence 
or a projecting branch, calling out at short intervals and in a 
rapid manner phehe phebe, and at times in a more plaintive 
tone phee-bi-ee. This quaint and querulous note, occasionally 
approaching to a warble, sometimes also sounds like pewait 
pewait, and then pe-wai-ee, also phebe phe-bee-ee, twice alter- 
nated ; the latter phrase somewhat soft and twittering. In the 
spring this not unpleasing guttural warble is kept up for hours 
together until late in the morning, and though not loud, may 
be heard to a considerable distance. From a roof I have 
heard these notes full half a mile across the water of a small 
lake ; and this cheerful, though monotonous, ditty is only in- 
terrupted for a few seconds as the performer darts and sweeps 
after his retreating prey of flies, frequently flirting and quiver- 
ing his tail and elevating his feathery cap, while sharply 
watching the motions of his fickle garne. 
In the Middle States he begins to construct his nest about 
the latter end of March, in Massachusetts not before the first 
