342 
FLYCATCHERS 
Woodpecker’s holes in the trunk, and one of them walks out of sight 
down a hollow limb. A Blackbird lights in the tree, and the Great- 
crest above becomes so agitated that I am convinced his mate has gone 
to her nest, when lo! both Flycatchers are off and away to another of the 
great trees that overtop the forest. Florence Merriam Bailey. 
456. Sayornis phoebe {Lath.). Phcebe. (Fig. 59.) Ads. — Upperparts 
grayish brown with an olive-green cast; crown distinctly darker, fuscous; 
wings and tail fuscous, wing-bars not conspicuous; outer vane of outer tail- 
feather white or yellowish white, except at the tip; underparts white, more 
or less washed with yellowish, and tinged with brownish gray on the breast 
and sides; bill black. Im. and Ads. in winter. — Similar, but upperparts more 
olive, underparts more yellow, and wing-bars more distinct. L., 6*99; W., 
3*38; T., 2*95; B. from N., *41. 
Remarks. — The Phoebe’s principal distinguishing characters are its fus- 
cous crown-cap, white outer vane of the outer tail-feather, and blackish 
lower mandible. 
Range. — E. N. Am. Breeds from sw. Mackenzie, Alberta, s. Keewatin, 
Ont., Que., N. B., N. S., s. to ne. N. M., cen. Tex., n. Miss., and highlands 
of Ga.; winters in U. S. s. of lat. 37° s. to s. Mex.; in migration casual w. to 
Colo, and Wyo., accidental in Calif, and Cuba. 
Washington, common S. R., Feb. 25-Oct.; occasionally winters. Ossin- 
ing, common S. R., Mch. 14-Oct. 29. Cambridge, common T. V., and not 
uncommon S. R., Mch. 25-Oct. 10. N. Ohio, common S. R., Mch. 14-Oct. 
15. Glen Ellyn, S. R., Mch. 13-Oct. 6. SE. Minn., common S. R 0 , Mch. 
22-Oct. 11. 
Nest, bulky, largely moss and mud lined with grasses and long hairs, on 
a beam or rafter, under a bridge or bank. Eggs , 4-6, white, rarely with a 
few cinnamon-brown spots, ‘78 x *59. Date, Delaware Co., Pa., Apl. 18; 
Cambridge, Apl. 28; Galesburg, Ills., Apl. 22; se. Minn., Apl. 19. 
There is something familiar, trustful, and homelike in the Phoebe’s 
ways which has won him an undisputed place in our affections. With 
an assurance born of many welcomes he returns each year to his perch 
on the bridge-rail, barnyard gate, or piazza, and contentedly sings his 
humble, monotonous pewit phoebe, pewit phoebe — a hopelessly tune- 
less performance,, but who that has heard it in early spring, when the 
‘pussy willow’ seems almost to purr with soft blossoms, will not affirm 
that Phoebe touches chords dumb to more ambitious songsters! 
Sometimes Phoebe is inspired to greater effort, and, springing into 
the air on fluttering wings, he utters more phoebes in a few seconds 
than he would sing ordinarily in an hour. 
Phoebe is a devoted parent, and is rarely found far from home. 
His nest seems to be the favorite abode of an innumerable swarm of 
parasites which sometimes cause the death of his offspring, and when 
rearing a second family he changes his quarters. 
Aside from a few Great-crests, no other Flycatcher winters in num- 
bers in our Southern States, and Phoebe’s notes heard in January in 
the heart of a Florida ‘hummock’ seem strangely out of place. 
Say’s Phcebe {J+57. Sayornis saya), a western species, is of accidental 
occurrence east of the Mississippi. It has been found in northern Illinois, 
Wisconsin, Iowa, and, on Cape Cod, Massachusetts (Miller, Auk, VII, 1890, 
228). 
