JU^ ft~~«l. £' 
1. 8ayornisphce.be. Pewee. One best early 
in April contained two eggs of the Cowbird 
and three of the Pewee. Another found in 
May contained damaged eggs of the owner and 
two sound Cowbird’s eggs. This nest had been 
deserted some time. 
0,&0. XIV, Sept. 1880 p 133 
Phoebe Nesting in Bank Swallows’ 
Burrows. 
• hrt. n 
On May 22 of the present year, as my ( ^ Su _ ftfz. 
friend Mr. H. Dinsmore and myself were 4 i^y 
walking along the bank of the Piscstaquog' ' 
river, we observed a Phoebe fly suddenly 
from under our feet. We investigated the 
matter and found an old deserted Bank 
Swallow colony, which I should judge, by 
the condition of the tunnels, to have been 
vacant for several years. In one of these 
holes about a foot from the entrance was 
the nest of the Phoebe, containing two 
young, just hatched, and two eggs. 
Arthur Af. Farmer . 
Amoskeag, N.H. 
Two Broods Raised in the Same Nest 
by Pewee. 
On May 4th I discovered a nest of the Pewee 
upon the top of one of the blinds of our. house, 
and upon investigating found it contained two 
eggs, later on it contained four. These were 
hatched, and in due time the young birds left 
the nest. On July 4th I noticed the bird again 
on the nest and upon examining found one egg 
and a young bird just hatched. 
Is it usual for the Pewee to rear two broods 
in the same nest without repairing the same? 
8. B. Ingersoll. 
Ballston Spa, N. Y. 
O.&G, 15. August, 1890, ©, ft 7, 
Birds TiOga 0©, N. Y. Aidezi Loring, 
315. Phoebe. Common. Arrives in pairs 
or singly about the first of April and lives on 
bugs and insects. About the third week in 
April nest building commences. The nest is 
very compact and deeply hollowed, being 
placed under the eaves of a barn or house, in a 
shed, under bridges or culverts, etc. It is com- 
posed of moss and mud, being lined with 
horse hair, small, dried grass and other soft 
materials. The eggS*are usually four in num- 
ber, and are of a pure white color, some of 
them being .spotted with light brown, mostly 
at the larger end. The eggs commohly meas- 
ure 3-4 in. by 4-16 in. 
Q*&0, XV, June, 1890, p.M 
Phoebe Bird — Pewee. 
From Wade’s Fibre and Fabric. 
This intelligent and familiar bird can be 
found all over New England wherever there 
is an open barn, barn cellar, bridge, or any 
kind of a dilapidated out-house or even high 
rocks, on the face of which the nest may often 
be found built of moss and mud, with some 
hair for lining, and fastened firmly to the rock 
with mud under some slight projection. I 
never found a nest on a continuous shelf on a 
; rock, but often just above or below one. This 
is evidently done to avoid their four-footed 
enemies that often pass over such runs and 
. would destroy their eggs if they came in their 
way. There are some rocks where the 
remains of many nests can be found showing 
; that they have built there for very many 
years. They will occupy the same nest for 
years, relining it each year unless they have 
good cause to desert it. 
April 16, 1882, I found a beautiful nest in a 
j desertedNew England farm-house atVersailles, 
Conn. It was sustained on a nail against a 
joist in what had been the dining-room. I 
questioned the owner about the nest. He 
|l stated that it had been there for twenty years 
j undisturbed, and they always got off two 
! broods in a season. 
| 
New England barns are usually built with 
j the under beams hewn, and are more or less 
j rounding, giving a shoulder on which the 
Phoebe builds its nest. 
In a barn cellar of this kind, at Rockville, 
! Conn., I took two sets of four eggs; another 
party took the third set with nest and four 
! eggs. The same pair built a new nest and 
j. laid four more eggs the same year, from whieli 
they took off four young. This was in 1878, 
when every pair we found that year laid but 
four eggs. 
During 1877 we took a nest from a slight 
j shelf on a solitary rock which stood on the 
level ground in a wood away from any build- 
| ings. The nest was not over three feet from 
the ground and in plain sight of the public 
j road. Within a few hundred yards of this 
rock, at the head of Lake Snipsic, Rockville, 
Conn., is a bridge, the beams of which are not 
over four feet from the water, which is very 
turbulent in the spring-time. The bridge is 
always in poor order, and the dirt falls through 
and annoys the Plicebes that build their nest 
underneath, and yet they breed there every 
year, unless disturbed too much. Even then 
they will return another year. 
Under this bridge, in 1878 (June lltli), I 
took a set of four eggs; May 14, 1879, I took a 
■ set of five eggs; May 15, 1880, I took a set of 
five eggs, which proved to be slightly spotted. 
This was the only spotted set I have taken, 
though they are not unusual. Under this 
bridge, which is a fair type of similar bridges, 
are to be found the remains of many nests. 
In the summer of 1879, while botanizing 
with a granddaugher of Audubon, in the 
i town of Tolland, Conn., I climbed into a win- 
dow of a recently abandoned dwelling. In one 
NITHOLOGIST 
[Vol. 17-No. 5 
of eggs on the limb of an old white oak tree. 
The tree was about twenty inches in diameter, 
and the horizontal limb on which the nest was 
found was about eight inches in diameter. 
The limb projected about sixteen feet from the 
body of the tree and the nest was about 
twenty-five feet above the water. He also 
reports four nests at one time on the beams in a 
small old saw-mill with up and down saw. This 
is not at all unusual, as the birds become 
remarkably tame during the breeding 
season. 
The Wood Pewee is a near relative of the 
Phoebe bird, but it always builds in the woods 
and on a small horizontal limb, and lays three 
beautifully marked eggs. I have heard of five 
eggs being laid, but have no positive evidence 
of the fact. 
Jos. M. Wade. 
Q.Ss O. Vol. 17,May 1892 p. 77-78- 
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