HABITS OF THE RED-FACED WARBLER 333 



piue woods, a few angry chirps coiuiug from the thick foliage 

 of a spruce attracted my attention, and in a moment a robin 

 flew out in hot haste closely followed by a small bird, which 

 after a short chase returned, and with a few satisfied chirps 

 called together several young, whose presence I for the first time 

 was thus made aware of. The old bird immediately began to 

 search for food, moving like a Chickadee over the limbs, flying 

 out now and then for a short distance to snap up an insect, 

 which was instantly given to one or the other of several young 

 that, with beseeching notes and cries, followed the old one about 

 as it moved from one part of the tree to another. Soon per- 

 ceiving that the birds were entire strangers to me, I shot first 

 the old bird, which proved to be a male, and then two of the 

 young, when the female appeared on the scene, and led away 

 the two remaining members of the brood in safety. The fol- 

 lowing day a careful search revealed but two more individuals, 

 both adult. 



"Just [half] a month later, on visiting Mount Graham, I not 

 only saw the species again, but it proved to be a common bird 

 of this locality, flocks of ten or fifteen being not unusual among 

 the pines and spruces ; it frequented these trees almost exclu- 

 sively, only rarely being seen on the bushes that fringed the 

 streams. Its habits are a rather strange compound, now resem- 

 bling those of Warblers, again recalling the Eedstarts, but more 

 often perhaps bringing to mind the less graceful motions of the 

 familiar Titmice. Their favorite hunting places appeared to 

 be the extremities of the limbs of the spruces, over the branches 

 of which they passed with quick motion, and a peculiar and 

 constant sidewise jerk of the tail, 



"When thus engaged, especially when high overhead, they 

 might easily be passed by, as a busy group of Titmice intent 

 only on satisfying their hunger. They appear to obtain most 

 of their food from the branches, seizing the insects when at 

 rest; but they are abundantly able to take their prey on the 

 wing, and accomplish this much after the style of the Redstarts. 

 Their disposition seems to prompt them to sociability with other 

 species, and occasionally I found them accompanying the Au- 

 dubon's Warblers, and imitating them in their short flights 

 from tree to tree, occasionally paying flying visits to the fallen 

 logs and even to the ground. Save in being rather louder and 

 harsher, their chirps resemble the notes of the Yellow-rump 

 Warblers." 



