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 Phœbe 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 Phœbe shows so marked a fondness for our society, nesting under our piazzas, in barns or outbuildings, and calls his pewit-phœbe 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 Phœbe's 4-6 white eggs (rarely with a few brown spots) are laid the latter half of April.
OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER
Nuttalornis borealis. [Case 8], Fig. 59
With the general appearance of a large Phœbe, but with the breast and sides the color of the back, and a tuft of white feathers on each flank. L. 7½.
Range. North America; nests from northern New England northward (southward in the Alleghanies to North Carolina); winters in the tropics.
Washington, casual T.V. Ossining, tolerably common T.V., May 20; Aug. 15-Sept. 16. Cambridge, rare T.V., May 20-June 6; formerly not uncommon S.R., one Sept. record. Glen Ellyn, not common T.V., May 13-June 11; Aug. 11-Sept. 15. SE. Minn., common T.V., May 10-Sept. 9.
To most of us the Olive-sided is known as a rare migrant passing northward in May, among the later transients, and southward in September. When traveling the bird retains the fondness of its kind for perching on tall tree-tops, but its loud, unmistakable, whistled "come right here, come right here" is usually heard only on the nesting ground.