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Range (Eastern North America breeds) (IX)

Eastern North America; breeds from South Carolina to Newfoundland and Manitoba, and winters from North Carolina to Cuba and Mexico.

Washington, common S. R., Mch. 5 to Oct.; occasionally winters. Sing Sing, common S. R., Mch. 14 to Oct. 29. Cambridge, common S. R., Mch. 25 to Oct. 10.

Nest, bulky, largely moss and mud lined with grasses and long hairs, on a beam or rafter, under a bridge or bank. Eggs, four to six, white, rarely with a few cinnamon-brown spots, 78 x 59.

There is something familiar, trustful, and homelike in the Phœbe'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 phœbe, pewit phœbe-a hopelessly tuneless 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 Phœbe touches chords dumb to more ambitious songsters! Sometimes Phœbe is inspired to greater effort, and, springing into the air on fluttering wings, he utters more phœbes in a few seconds than he would sing ordinarily in an hour. 66 Phœbe 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.

No other Flycatcher winters in numbers in our Southern States, and Phœbes' notes heard in January in the heart of a Florida "hummock" seem strangely out of place. SAY'S PHEBE (457. Sayornis saya), a western species, is of accidental occurrence east of the Mississippi. It has been found in northern Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and, more recently, on Cape Cod, Massachusetts (Miller, Auk, vii, 1890, p. 228). 459. Contopus borealis (Swains.). OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER. Ad. -Upper parts between fuscous and dark olive; wings and tail fuscous; throat, middle of the belly, and generally a narrow line on the center of the breast white or yellowish white; rest of the under parts of nearly the same color as the back; under tail-coverts marked with dusky; a tuft of fluffy, yellowishwhite feathers on either flank; upper mandible black, lower mandible yellowish or pale grayish brown, the tip darker. Im. -Similar, but with rather FLYCATCHERS. more olive above, more yellow below, and with the wing-coverts edged with ochraceous-buff. L., 7.39; W., 4.05; 'T., 270; B. from N., 54.