268 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



Generally these unobtrusive dull colored birds slip softly 

 through the foliage without being observed by many, but their 

 song or call is good evidence that they are around. The song 

 is less loud and harsh and of different intonation and time 

 from that of the Yellow-bill. The habits are very similar. 



The nest of the present species is built in low bushes in 

 thicket, brier patches, alders and willows along the streams, 

 roadside thickets and bushes in orchards and gardens. They 

 eat almost every kind of moth, butterfly and the larvae thereof, 

 beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, and occasionally various berries 

 and soft fruits. I have known of their eating numbers of 

 potato bug larvae. 



With us the eggs may be found during June and July, 

 the period of laying varying with the season and individual. 



The eggs are laid at intervals of two or three days, or some, 

 times at greater intervals, so that well grown young are 

 sometimes found with unhatched eggs which are afterward 

 hatched. A typical nest was found ten feet from the ground 

 in an alder bush in a dense thicket along the Stillwater River 

 at Orono, June 15, 1894. When found there were no eggs 

 in the nest and two days later one egg appeared, three days 

 after the first egg was laid another was laid, and no other eggs 

 appeared within the next six days so the nest and set were 

 collected. These eggs were rather deep greenish blue and 

 measure 1.11 x 0.81, 1.05 x 0.76. The foundation of the 

 nest was twigs of alder and willow, and the eggs were warmly 

 bedded in a downy mass of catkins of Salix behbiana and a 

 few catkins of Salix discolor. This nest was four inches in 

 height outside and five inches across. It was nearly flat on 

 top the hollow being not quite half an inch. 



Both birds remained in the vicinity when the nest was ap- 

 proached, wings drooping and tails expanded, calling "cow-cow- 

 cow-cow" with considerable anger. Both birds aided in build- 

 ing the nest and took turns at sitting after the first egg was laid. 

 Other nests I have seen invariably had the platform made of 



