_Soyornis phoebe. Case 4, Fig. 52; Case 5, Fig. 15_
Head slightly crested, somewhat darker than body.
In the fall the underparts are tinged with yellow.
L. 7.
_Range._ Eastern North America; nests from
northern Mississippi and northwestern Georgia to
Canada; winters from South Carolina to Mexico. The
only Flycatcher to winter in the eastern United
States and hence the first to reach us in the
spring.
Washington, common S.R., Feb. 25-Oct.;
occasionally winters. Ossining, common S.R., Mch.
14-Oct. 29. Cambridge, common T.V., and not
uncommon S.R., Mch. 25-Oct. 10. N. Ohio, common
S.R., Mch. 14-Oct. 15. Glen Ellyn, S.R., Mch.
13-Oct. 6. SE. Minn., common S.R., Mch. 22-Oct.
11.
The Phoebe is the best known member of a group of small Flycatchers
which the beginner, and not infrequently the advanced student, names
with more or less uncertainty. Fortunately for the field student, and as
if to compensate for their close resemblance in plumage, they all
possess distinctive, quite unlike, and easily recognizable calls, and
consequently can readily be identified by their voices if not by their
colors.
The Phoebe shows so marked a fondness for our society, nesting under
our piazzas, in barns or outbuildings, and calls his _pewit-phoebe_ so
plainly, wagging his tail the while in a friendly, sociable kind of a
way, that there is never any doubt about his identity; but we will not
make the acquaintance of his less common, less confiding relatives so
readily.
The Phoebe's 4-6 white eggs (rarely with a few brown spots) are laid
the latter half of April.