Wood Pewee

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

a shy forest bird of the flycatcher family. It resembles the olive-sided flycatcher. The upper parts are a dark olive; the wings and tail are fuscous; the wing coverts are barred with white; the under parts are white or yellowish. The upper mandible is black, the lower yellowish. The bird is nearly seven inches long. The wings are longer than the tail. Three or four white eggs with a wreath of umber markings about the larger end are deposited in a neat, shallow nest of fine grasses and rootlets, saddled on a limb from thirty to forty feet above the ground. The nest is composed partly of lichens to make it look like a knot. The wood pewee nests from Florida to Manitoba and winters southward. It is related closely to the phoebe or pewee; but, unlike the latter, which builds in bridges, barns, and other structures of man, the wood pewee hies itself to the deepest woods. It is an inhabitant of the tree-tops, where it catches the insects that live at a similar height. His pensive, gentle ways are voiced by his sad, sweet call. The notes are as musical and restful, as much a part of Nature's hymn, as the soft humming of a brook. All day long the pewee sings; even when the heat of summer silences more vigorous birds and the midday sun sends light-shafts to the ferns, the clear, sympathetic notes of the retiring songster come from the green canopy overhead, in perfect harmony with the peace and stillness of the hour.--Chapman. I quit the search, and sat me down Beside the brook, irresolute, And watched a little bird in suit Of somber olive, soft and brown, Perched in the maple branches, mute; With greenish gold its vest was fringed, Its tiny cap was ebon-tinged, With ivory pale its wings were barred, And its dark eyes were tender-starred. "Dear bird," I said, "what is thy name?" And thrice the mournful answer came, So faint and far, and yet so near,-- "Pe-wee! pe-wee! peer!" --Trowbridge.