Early leaf-out: tchevet

May 3. 

P. M. -— To Assabet Bath.

Empidonax minimus

Small pewee; tchevet, with a jerk of the head. 

Hardhack leafed two or maybe three days in one place. Early pyrus leafed yesterday or day before, if I have not named it. 

The skull of a horse, —not a mare, for I did not see the two small canine teeth in the upper jaw, nor in the under,—six molars on each side, above and below, and six incisors to each jaw. 

I first observe the stillness of birds, etc., at noon, with the increasing warmth, on the 23d of April. 

Sitting on the bank near the stone-heaps, I see large suckers rise to catch insects,—sometimes leap. 

A butterfly one inch in alar extent, dark velvety brown with slate colored tips, on dry leaves. 

On the north of Groton Turnpike beyond Abel Hosmer’s, three distinct terraces to river; first annually overflowed, say twenty-five or thirty rods wide, second seven or eight feet higher and forty or sixty wide, third forty feet higher still. 

Sweet-fern opened apparently yesterday. 

Vaccinium Pennsylvanicum began to leaf yesterday.

Young red maple leaf to-morrow; also some white birch, and perhaps sugar maple.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 3, 1855

Small pewee.  (probably the least flycatcher)  See:

• May 7, 1852 ("The first small pewee sings now che-vet, or rather chirrups chevet, tche-vet — a rather delicate bird with a large head and two white bars on wings. The first summer yellow- birds on the willow causeway. The birds I have lately mentioned come not singly, as the earliest, but all at once, i. e. many yellowbirds all over town. Now I remember the yellowbird comes when the willows begin to leave out. (And the small pewee on the willows also.)")
• May 2, 1853 "(Summer yellowbird on the opening Salix alba. Chimney swallows and the bank or else cliff ditto. Small pewee?")
• May 3, 1854 ("What I have called the small pewee on the willow by my boat, — quite small, uttering a short tchevet from time to time.")
• April 29, 1856 ("I hear the small pewee’s tche-vet’ repeatedly.")
• May 7, 1857 ("Small pewee.")
• May 5, 1858 ("Saw and heard the small pewee yesterday. The aspen leaves at Island to-day appear as big as a nine pence suddenly.")
• May 2, 1859 ("Small pewee and young lackey caterpillars.")
• May 8, 1860 ("The small pewee, how long.")

See also A Book of the Seasons: the "Small Pewee"