234 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



while it is searching for its food among the branches, in the manner of the 

 Vireos. 



Like nearly all the members of this family, in its search for food it blends 

 the habits of the Creepers with those of the Flycatchers, feeding npon 

 insects in their every form, running up and down the trunks for the o\'a, 

 larvae, and pupa, expertly catching the insect on the wing, and equally 

 skilful in hovering over the expanded bud and searcliing the opening leaves. 



Mr. Audubon found its nest placed deep among the branches of low fir- 

 trees, supported by horizontal twigs, constructed of moss and lichens, and 

 lined with fibrous roots and feathers. One found in Labrador, in the begin- 

 ning of July, contained five eggs, small and rather more elongated than is 

 common in this genus. They were white, and sprinkled with reddish dots at 

 the larger end. The female fluttered among the branches, spreading her 

 wings and tail in great distress, and returning to her nest as soon as the in- 

 truders were a few yards off. In August he saw a number of their young 

 already following their parents and moving southward. In his expedition 

 to Texas, Mr. Audubon again met this bird, in considerable numbers, early 

 in April. Their eggs, he states, measure tliree fourths of an inch in length 

 by nine sixteenths, in breadth. In some the ground-color, instead of pure 

 white, is of a yellowish tinge. 



Tlie writer found this Warbler abundant near Halifax in the early sum- 

 mer of 1850, frequenting the thick hemlock woods, confiding in its habits, 

 unsuspicious, and easily approached. The distress, as described hj Audubon, 

 manifested in behalf of its own young, it is as ready to exhibit when the 

 nest of a feathered neighbor is disturbed. A pair of Hudson's Bay Titmice, 

 protesting against the invasion of their home, by their outcries brought a pair 

 of these Warblers to their sympathetic assistance ; and the latter manifested, 

 in a more gentle way, quite as much distress and anxiety as the real parents. 

 With expanded tail and half-extended wings they fluttered overhead among 

 the branches, approacldng us almost within reach, uttering the most piteous 

 outcries. 



Sir Jolm Eichardson found this Warbler as common and as familiar as 

 the D. ccsiiva on the Saskatchewan, and greatly resembling it in habits, 

 though gifted with a much more varied and agreeable song. 



Mv. Kennicott met this Warbler on Great Slave Lake, June 12, 1860, 

 wdiere he obtained a female, nest, and five eggs. The nest, loosely built, was 

 placed in a small spruce about two feet from the ground, and in thick- 

 woods. The bird was rather bold, coming to her nest while he stood by it. 

 This nest was only one and a half inches deep, with a diameter of three and 

 a half inches ; the cavity only one inch deep, with a diameter of two and a 

 half inches. It was made almost entirely of fine stems of plants and slender 

 grasses, and a few mosses. The cavity was lined with finer stems, and fine 

 black roots of herbaceous plants. 



The eggs of this Warbler are, in shape, a rounded oval, one end being but 



