98» LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 



week of April, sometimes not until the second week of May, 

 and remain here until September, during a part of which month 

 migrants of this species continue to pass through from the 

 Korth on their way t;^ the South. The warblers generally in- 

 habit woodland of various kinds, but occasionally visit orchards 

 and like places near the habitations of man, toward whom they 

 exhibit no shj'ness, and also seek their food among the bushes 

 of the " scrub," where they find the caterpillars, small insects, 

 and insect-eggs, upon which they habitually feed. They differ 

 from all our other warblers in their method of obtaining their 

 food, which is to a certain extent entirely distinctive, though 

 much like that of the true creepers (Certhiidce) , from whom 

 the}' principally differ in being much less systematic in their 

 researches, and in occasionally busjdng themselves upon the 

 ground. They pass most of their time in scrambling about the 

 trunks and larger limbs of trees, rarely perching, and also in 

 running over old fences, such as contain rotten and moss-grown 

 or lichen-covered wood. While thus engaged, they almost 

 invariably keep their head pointed toward the direction in 

 which they are moving. They rarely take other than short 

 flights, when not traveling, but after remaining for a moment 

 on the trunk of one tree, seldom longer, fly to a neighboring 

 one. They are never strictly gregarious, but they possess 

 such conjugal and parental affection that they are often seen in 

 pairs (or family-groups). When the female is frightened from 

 her nest on the ground, which is often partially concealed, she 

 usually feigns lameness, and flutters away with trailing wings 

 and tail, in the hope of distracting the intruder. (Dr. Cones 

 speaks of these birds building in the holes of trees, which, 

 says Dr. Brewer, " is probably an error, or, if ever known to 

 occur, an entirel}^ exceptional case." I have found two of 

 their nests near Boston thus situated, of which the first was 

 in a pine-grove in the cavity of a tree rent by lightning, and 

 about five feet from the ground, and the other on the top of a 

 low birch stump, which stood in a grove of white oaks. These 

 facts show how erratic birds frequently are in changing their 

 habits, and how much corroborative testimony is needed to 

 establish a single fact in Natural History.) 



