The note of the Wood Pewee.

August 18.

The note of the wood pewee sounds prominent of late.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, August 18, 1860

See July 28, 1859 ("The sweet and plaintive note of the pewee is now prominent, since most other birds are more hushed. I hear young families of them answering each other from a considerable distance, especially about the river."); August 6, 1858 (“The note of the wood pewee is now more prominent, while birds generally are silent.”); August 9, 1856 ("The notes of the wood pewee and warbling vireo are more prominent of late, and of the goldfinch twittering over.”); August 12, 1858 ("The note of the wood pewee is a prominent and common one now. You see old and young together."); August 18, 1858 (“One appeared to answer the other, and sometimes they both sung together, — even as if the old were teaching her young. It was not the usual spring note of this bird, but a simple, clear pe-e-eet, rising steadily with one impulse to the end.”); August 20, 1854 ("Saw a wood pewee which had darted after an insect over the water in this position in the air: It often utters a continuous pe-e-e."); August 21, 1853 ("Methinks I have not heard a robin sing morning or evening of late, but the peawai still . . ."). See also J.J. Audubon ( "...at this season, their notes are heard at a very late hour, as in early spring. They may be expressed by the syllables pe-wee, pettowee, pe-wee, prolonged like the last sighs of a despondent lover, or rather like what you might imagine such sighs to be, it being, I believe, rare actually to hear them.")