62 
MUSCICAPA NUNCIOLA. 
mining* of the water below, and the projection of two 
large rocks above : — 
There down smooth glist’ning rocks the rivulet pours, 
Till in a pool its silent waters sleep, 
A dark brow’d cliff, o’ertopp’d with fern and flowers, 
Hangs, grimly louring, o’er the glassy deep ; 
Above through every chink the woodbines creep, 
And smooth-bark’d beeches spread their arms around, 
Whose roots cling twisted round the rocky steep ; 
A more sequester’d scene is no where found, 
For contemplation deep, and silent thought profound. 
In this cave I knew the pewit to build for several 
years. The place was solitary, and he was seldom 
disturbed. In the month of April, one fatal Saturday, 
a party of boys from the city, armed with guns, dealing 
indiscriminate destruction among the feathered tribes 
around them, directed their murderous course this way, 
and, within my hearing, destroyed both parents of this 
old and peaceful settlement. For two successive years, 
and I believe to this day, there has been no pewee seen 
about this place. This circumstance almost convinces 
me that birds, in many instances, return to the same 
spots to breed ; and who knows, but, like the savage 
nations of Indians, they may usurp a kind of exclusive 
right of tenure, to particular districts, where they 
themselves have been reared ? 
The notes of the pewee, like those of the bluebird, 
are pleasing, not for any melody they contain, hut from 
the ideas of spring and returning verdure, with all the 
sweets of this lovely season, which are associated with 
his simple but lively ditty. Towards the middle of 
June, he becomes nearly silent ; and, late in the fall, 
gives us a few farewell and melancholy repetitions, 
that recall past imagery, and make the decayed and 
withered face of nature appear still more melancholy. 
The pewit is six inches and a half in length, and nine 
and a half broad; the upper parts are of a dark dusky 
olive ; the plumage of the head, like those of the two 
preceding, is loose, subcrested, and of a deep brownish 
black ; wings and tail, deep dusky ; the former edged, 
