Identifier: birdlifeguidetos00chapman (find matches)
Title: Bird-life; a guide to the study of our common birds
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Chapman, Frank M. (Frank Michler), 1864-1945 Seton, Ernest Thompson, 1860-1946
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: New York : D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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white. It is difficult to describe our smaller Flycatchers sothat even when in the hand they may be satisfactorilyidentified, and it is quite impossible to descril)e them sothat from color alone they may be recognized in the field.Fortunately, the calls of our commoner species are sounlike that, when learned, there will be no difficulty innaming their authors. To say that the Least Flycatcher is five and a halfinches long, olive-green al)ove and grayish white below,does not aid one in distinguishing it from several of itscousins; but when I add that its call is a snappy cheUc,chehec, the bird will be known the first time it is heard.It is this call which has given the bird its connnonname. The Chel^ec comes to us in tlie spring, about April 25,and remains until Septend)er. You will rarely find two members of the same familywith more diiferent dispositions than those of the King-bird and Wood Pewee. Their natures might symbolizewar and peace, so combative is the Kingbird, so gentle the
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Plate XXXIII. WOOD PEWEE. Length, 650 inches. Upper parts dusky oHve-green ; under parts whitish,washed with dusky ; lower mandible yellowish. 157 2^58 WOOD PEWEE. Pewee. As so often happens among birds, their voices are in keeping with their temperaments. The soft, Wood Pewee dreamy pee-a-wee or jpee-a-wee peer of Contopus vircns. the Pewee is as well snited to its char- Piate XXXIII. acter as the harsh, chattering cries of victory are to the Kingbirds. The Pewee is the last of our more common Fly-catchers to come from the South, arriving about May 10,and, like the Chebec, remaining until October. It is lesssocial than either the Chebec or the Phoebe. Forestsare its chosen haunts, but occasionally it is found on well-shaded lawns and roadsides. The Pewees nest rivals the Hummingbirds m beauty.It is a coarser structure, composed of fine grasses, rootlets,and moss, Ijut externally is thickly covered with lichens.Usually it is saddled on a limb from twenty to forty feetabove the ground.

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