Wilson states that they often nest in eaves, and occasionally in an open well, five or six feet down, among the interstices of the side-walls. Nuttall has known them to nest in an empty kitchen.
Their attachment to a locality, when once chosen, is remarkable, and is often persevered in under the most discouraging circumstances. In one instance, Nuttall states that a nest was built in the boathouse at Fresh Pond, Cambridge,—a place so common as to be almost a thoroughfare. Although with its young brood this nest was torn down by ruffian hands, the female immediately built a new one in the same spot, and laid five additional eggs. This was lined with the silvery shreds of a manilla rope, taken from the loft over the boathouse.
Besides the common call-note, from which these birds derive their name, they have, during the love-season, a low twittering song with which they entertain their mates, but which is heard only when the birds are in company, and for a brief season.
The flight of the Pewee is an alternation of soaring and a succession of light fluttering motions, more rapid when pursuing its prey than in its ordinary movements. Its crest is usually erected when it is in motion, or on the lookout for insects.
Mr. Audubon found these birds in full song in Florida during the winter, and as lively as in spring, but met with none breeding south of Charleston. They leave Louisiana in February, and return to it in October. They feed largely on berries, especially during the winter, and Mr. Maynard found some in the spring of 1868 with hawthorn berries in their stomachs.
The eggs of the Pewee measure .80 of an inch in length and .60 in breadth. They are of a rounded oval shape, pointed at one end and much larger at the other. Their ground-color is a pure bright white, and generally unspotted; but a certain proportion, one set in every five or six, is distinctly marked with reddish-brown dots at the larger end.
SAY’S PEWEE.
Muscicapa saya, Bonap. Am. Orn. I, 1825, 20, pl. xi, fig. 3.—Aud. Orn. Biog. IV, 1838, 428, pl. ccclix.—Ib. Birds Am. I, 1840, 217, pl. lix. Tyrannus saya, Nuttall, Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 311. Myiobius saya, Gray, Genera, I, 1844-49, 249. Ochthœca sayĭ, Cabanis, Wiegmann Archiv, 1847, I, 255 (not type). Tyrannula saya, Bonap. Conspectus, 1850.—Max. Cab. J. VI, 1858, 183. Aulanax sayus, Cabanis, Journ. Orn. 1856, 2. Tyrannula pallida, Swainson, Syn. Birds Mex. No. 15, in Taylor’s Phil. Mag. I, 1827, 367. Sayornis pallida, Bonap.—Scl. P. Z. S. 1857, 204. Sayornis sayus, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 185.—Ib. M. B. II, Birds, 9.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 320. Theromyias saya, Caban. M. H. II, Sept. 1859, 68 (type).
Sp. Char. Above and on the sides of the head, neck, and breast, grayish-brown, darker on the crown; region about the eye dusky. The chin, throat, and upper part of the breast similar to the back, but rather lighter and tinged with the color of the rest of the lower parts, which are pale cinnamon. Under wing-coverts pale rusty-white. The wings of a rather deeper tint than the back, with the exterior vanes and tips of the quills darker. Edges of the greater and secondary coverts, of the outer vane of the outer primary, and of the secondaries and tertials, dull white. The upper tail-coverts and tail nearly black. Edge of outer vane of exterior tail-feather white. Bill dark brown, rather paler beneath. The feet brown. Second, third, and fourth quills nearly equal; fifth nearly equal to sixth; sixth much shorter than the fifth. Tail broad, emarginate. Tarsi with a posterior row of scales. Length, 7 inches; wing, 4.30; tail, 3.35.