192 
BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
like the back ; tibiae brown ; bill and feet black ; bill slender, edges nearly straight; 
tail rather broad, and slightly forked, third quill longest, second and fourth nearly 
equal, the first shorter than sixth. 
“In autumn, and occasionally in early spring, the colors are much clearer and 
brighter. Whole lower parts sometimes bright sulphur-yellow, above greenish- 
olive, top and sides of head tinged with sooty ; in the young of the year, the colors 
are much duller ; all the wing-coverts broadly tipped with light ferruginous, as also 
the extreme ends of the wings and tail feathers ; the brown is prevalent on the whole 
throat and breast; the hind part of the back, rump, and tail, strongly ferruginous. 
Length about 7 inches ; extent about 11 inches.”— B. B. of N. A. 
Habitat. —Eastern North America, from the British Provinces south to eastern 
Mexico and Cuba, wintering from the south Atlantic and Gulf states southward. 
The Phoebe bird or Pewee, so named from its note, is one of our ear¬ 
liest spring* migrants; it arrives in Pennsylvania mostly about the mid¬ 
dle of March, and continues in this region until about the 15th of Octo¬ 
ber. A few individuals sometimes linger as late as the first of Novem¬ 
ber. In the early part of February, 1883, I saw Mr. C. D. Wood, of 
Philadelphia, skinning a Pewee which had been shot on the 22d of Jan- 
uary, 1883, at Spring City, Chester county, Pa. 
In Cecil county, Maryland, and the southern portion of Delaware, I 
have, on different occasions, seen these birds as late as the 25th of No¬ 
vember. During the latter part of February, 1885, when camping at 
Drayton Island, in Lake George, Florida, I obtained five of these fly¬ 
catchers, and found that all had fed chiefly on Palmetto berries. The 
nest is generally built under a bridge or shelving rocks; oftentimes, 
however, this species is found breeding about barns and other buildings. 
Although the Pew r ee seldom breeds in the woods, it occasionally builds 
its nests against the dirt covered roots of trees which have been blown 
over; I have twice found their nests, in forests, placed in these situa¬ 
tions. Both sexes engage in building their nest, which is completed in 
about six days. The materials used in its construction are mosses, 
grasses, fine roots, mud, feathers, etc. The eggs, usually five in num¬ 
ber, are pure white and unspotted; sometimes, however they are faintly 
spotted with reddish-brown. They measure about .80 of an inch in 
length, and .55 of an inch in width. Incubation, which is engaged in 
only by the female, lasts for a period of about twelve days. During the 
late summer, autumn and winter, I have noticed that these birds, in ad¬ 
dition to various insects, feed to a considerable extent on different kinds 
of fruits, such as those of the raspberry, blackberry, poke, wild-grape 
and cedar. The young of this species are fed exclusively on insects. 
The food materials of sixteen Pewees examined by the writer are 
given in the following table: 
