I 66 LIFE-HISTORIES OF Rl 



The flight of this bird is low, gliding, and 



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moderately sustained. 



During its brief stay of a week it is apparently 

 silent; not so much as a simple call has it been 

 heard to utter. Coming alone and being a solitary 

 and voracious feeder, its attention is so completely 

 engrossed with appetital gratification, that other 

 influences are temporarily held in absyance. Its 

 call-note is said by Mr. Audubon to resemble that 

 of Spiza cirisy but difficult to distinguish; but its 

 sonor of three syllables is loud, cheerful and acrree- 



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able, and resembles wcet, wed, w:etcc. The species 

 is pre-eminently vocal in the spring, so says the 

 sime writer, but ceases altogether at the time of 

 the first hatching; its sonp* is resumed \vhen the 



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mate is a^ain sitting on her second set of epf^s. 



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Its food consists ot beetles, two-winged Hies, 

 and lepidoptera, principally. Although chiefly 

 aerial, so to speak, in foraging for food, it is never- 

 theless, both arboreal and terrestrial. The fol- 

 lowing insects constitute a portion of its volumin- 

 ous bill ot fare:- -Cymindis viridipennis, Donacia 

 metallic a, D. comflu?nia, Bostrichus pint, Chryso- 

 mela c&ndeipcnms, Ccisnonia pmnsylvanica and 

 Culex taeniorhynchus, among diptera; Apis melli- 

 fica, Formica sanguined, F. subterranea, Setandna 

 rose?, Megachile centuncularis, and various species 

 of Hali.ctus among hymenoptera; Utcihcisa bella, 

 Lithosia miniata, Anhopteryx -jn-nata, in larval 

 state, mature forms of Spilotoma Virginica, and 

 many of the smaller i\ ^ociuid-z and Ttncidcu; besides 

 various species of aphides and spiders. 



