Feet and Legs 363 



where he bursts into a joyous bubbling and warbling, 

 calling to his brethren of the tree-tops that, though his 

 haunts are changed, his heart is true to the clan. His 

 cousin, the Worm-eating Warbler, is tending in his direc- 

 tion, living in low bushes and in his habits drifting ever 

 marshward, where there may not be sufficient competition 

 to prevent his eventually sharing it with his more original 

 kinsman. The Yellow Palm Warblers, although more 

 conventional in their ordinary tree-top haunts, have de- 

 parted from ancient customs in their feeding habits. 

 They dine on the ground, then fly back to the trees; ob- 

 serving, like some humans, the traditions of their family 

 in the spirit, if not in the letter. 



The brilliant Redstart clings even more closely to the 

 ancestral ideas of high trees, and cares little what kinds 

 he may find himself in; but he has a failing for water, 

 and if he may not descend, as have his two cousins men- 

 tioned above, yet he overlooks them and often swings 

 low through the air toward them. For in his feeding 

 habits he is one of the most radical of warblers. Has 

 he not seen the little green flycatchers in the woods, sit- 

 ting so lazily upon some favourite perch, and with an occa- 

 sional swoop snapping up an unfortunate insect? Why, 

 indeed, search all day for the tiny mouthfuls? Why not 

 wait for them to appear? So Redstart attempts fly- 

 catching and with perfect success. 



But the active blood which surges through his veins 

 wfll not allow him to assume the patient waiting tactics 

 of the genuine flycatchers. He may imitate their meth- 

 ods of actual capture, bagging his game on the wing, but 



