OF EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA. 103 



nal migration, making its appearance not earlier 

 than the loth of May, and then only in high open 

 woodlands where it is a busy gleaner among the 

 foliage and branchlets for various insects. It is an 

 exceedingly active little creature, and in habits re- 

 sembles both the Paridce and Vireonidce. With 

 the nimbleness and gracefulness of Parus atrica- 

 pillus, it clambers about, freely suspending itself 

 from the under surface of a branch, and ever and 

 anon being diverted therefrom by a passing insect 

 which it seizes with great adroitness, after the 

 fashion of the Vireos. 



Whilst in wooded regions its foraging is re- 

 stricted to the uppermost branches, and is pro- 

 secuted with considerable celerity, from branch to 

 branch, and from tree to tree. But as its stay is 

 prolonged, it changes its base of operation; about 

 the time the apple is in blossom, it visits our 

 orchards and lawns for the insects which are at- 

 tracted to their bloom. It now becomes notably 

 tame and unsuspicious and easy of approach. 



Its food consists almost wholly of small beetles 

 which it eleans amono- the leaves, and various 



o o 



small diptera which Vireo-like it captures on the 

 wing. Although chiefly arboreal, it is not exclu- 

 sively so, as it occasionally descends to the earth to 

 complete a meal. We have found within its stomach, 

 larvae of, CratonycJms cinereus, mature forms of 

 Chrysomela ccerulcipcnnis, Platynus cupripennis, 

 Cymindis viridipennis, Harpalus compar, Bostrichus 

 pini, Formica sanguined, Apis mcllifica, a species 



