The Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) is a migratory bird which breeds in the Great Plains and winters in the Southeastern United States. Our Southern Birds relates that it "return[s] to the Southern mountains each spring to the same nesting place" (106). A springhouse is a small structure built over a natural spring--used as a primitive form of refrigeration. Crocks and jars, filled with dairy products and other perishables, are submerged in the stream of cool water to keep their contents fresh. The Phoebe's selection of such a nesting site illustrates its extreme sociability. Miles mentions perhaps the same nest in Our Southern Birds: "I used to know a 'rockhouse' under a mountain bluff where the nest of a Phoebe was to be seen every spring, with portions of those of preceding seasons still clinging to the face of the rock, and mud rings--as many as five might be counted--marking sites of others long crumbled away" (106).