THE NATURE OF ITS FOOD 479 



takes to conceal itself, and adds some other particulars, to 

 which I shall presently refer again. 1 remark here, however, 

 that he alone, besides myself, credits the bird with musical 

 ability, speaking of its " sweet notes", as indicating its Oscine 

 rather than Glamatorial affinities. How does it happen, by the 

 way, that so many persons who speak of this illusive bird have 

 nothing to say of its song? 



Having seen this much of a remarkable bird, let us com- 

 plete its natural history. We have yet to learn of two impor- 

 tant matters — ^^what the pretty creature lives upon and how it 

 nests. Thus far, we have only seen it in the role of an expert 

 and successful insect-hunter ; but, though insects form much 

 of its food, it seems that berries form still more. We might 

 expect, if its assigned relationships be the true ones, to dis 

 cover a berry-eater in this relative of asthmatic Ampelis. I do 

 not know whom to credit with the discovery, but we have 

 known for years that nitens is fond of various berries, like a 

 Cedar-bird for instance, especially the fruit of the mistletoe, 

 which grows in abundance in the regions where the birds live. 

 Thus Dr. Cooper says : — " They prefer the vicinity of the trees 

 on which the mistletoe grows, as its berries form much of their 

 food during the whole year, . . ." So also Henshaw, no less 

 explicitly, and with more detail : — " Large numbers of this 

 species were found, on several occasions, in the caiion back of 

 Camp Apache, Ariz. As they were noticed nowhere else in 

 this vicinity, I judged that the abundance of mistletoe ber- 

 ries here served as an attraction. These they were greedily 

 feeding upon. ... At Camp Bowie, Ariz., large numbers 

 were found gathered together in the caiion, attracted thither 

 by the abundance of the berries of the Prunus demissa and 

 Vitis incisa. Of these, the birds seemed very fond, and they 

 appeared to constitute their sole food j though the period during 

 which their feast lasts must be necessarily short, as each bush 

 was fairly beset by scores of these birds, who seemed to have 

 entered into a rivalry with the Mockingbirds to see which 

 could bear away most of the ripe juicy fruit." Specimens pro- 

 cured by Mr. H. E. Dresser at Eagle Pass, Texas, had the 

 stomach filled with the berries of a species of mistletoe that 

 grows abundantly on the mezquites ; and Captain Bendire wit- 

 nesses that these birds " are always found about the mistletoe, 

 on the berries of which they feed almost exclusively" — a rather 

 strong statement indeed, but no doubt substantially correct. 



