PEWIT FLYCATCHER. 
229 
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PEWIT FLYCATCHER. — MUSCICAPA NUNCIOLA. 
Plate XIII. Fig. 4. 
Bartram , p. 289. — Blackcap Flycatcher, Lath. Syn. ii. 333. — Phoebe Flycatcher, 
Id. Sup. p. 173. — Le Gobe-mouche noiratre de la Caroline, Buff. iv. 541. — 
Arct. Zool. p. 387, No. 269. — Beale's Museum , No. 6618. 
TYRANNULA FUSCA. — Jardine. 
Muscicapa fusca, Bonap. Synop. p. 68. 
This well-known bird is one of our earliest spring visitants, 
arriving in Pennsylvania about tlie first week in March, and 
continuing with us until October. I have seen them here as 
late as the 12th of November. In the month of February, I 
overtook these birds lingering in the low swampy woods of 
North and South Carolina. They were feeding on smilax 
berries, and chanting, occasionally, their simple notes. The 
favourite resort of this bird is by streams of water, under or 
near bridges, in caves, &c. Near such places he sits on a 
projecting twig, calling out, pe-wee, pe-wittitee pe-wee, for a 
whole morning; darting after insects, and returning to the 
same twig ; frequently flirting his tail, like the Wagtail, though 
not so rapidly. He begins to build about the 20th or 25th of 
March, on some projecting part under a bridge, in a cave, in 
an open well, five or six feet down among the interstices of 
the side walls, often under a shed, in the low eaves of a 
cottage, and such like places.* The outside is composed of 
* The general manners of this species, and indeed of the greater part of 
the smaller Tyrannulce, bear a considerable resemblance to those of the 
common Spotted Flycatcher of this country, which the dilatation at the base 
of the bill, and the colour of the plumage, render still greater. The peculiar 
droop of the tail, and occasional rise and depression of the feathers on the 
crown, which are somewhat elongated — the motionless perch on some bare 
branch — the impatient call — the motion of the tail — and the sudden dart 
after some insect, and return to the same spot — are all close resemblances to 
the manners delineated by our author ; and the resort by streams, bridges, or 
caves, with the manner and place of building — even the colour of the eggs — are 
