516 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



During migration they frequent the more open hard woods 

 and the roadside trees, taking much of their food in the air and 

 leaping after it in short flights much after the style of the 

 Myrtle Warbler. They also busily hunt through the limbs of 

 the trees and over the foliage for tender green caterpillars, 

 beetles, flies, moths and other insects, and such insect eggs as 

 may be found on the bark of trees are greedily devoured. 

 Occasionally a male will tune up and sing " we we we greet 

 chu " in a pleasing warbled tone. Mr. Burns in Warbler 

 Songs, p. 35, has described the song as " te te te te we chu " 

 while Miss Ethel D. Roberts gives another rendering, "tsee 

 tsee tsee happy to meet you." The song is uttered at frequent 

 intervals through the early summer. The alarm note is a 

 "chip" while the call is a soft "tsip." 



In the nesting season the species prefers to frequent second 

 growth hard woods, open deciduous woods with bushy under- 

 growth, scrubby pastures and similar situations, being missing 

 from the deep evergreen woods. A favorite nesting site is 

 where some birch or maple tree has been cut off" three or four 

 feet from the ground and the second growth shoots have start- 

 ed up in a fringe around the top of the stub, and within this 

 fringe, on the top of the trunk (when about three inches in 

 diameter) the nest is placed. Many nests are placed in thick 

 bushes, scrub oaks, and similar places, generally not more 

 than two to ten feet from the ground. Eggs are laid from 

 June fourth to July fourth but more usually the second or third 

 week in June, and usually four or five is the full complement. 



A typical nest was taken from a small bush three feet 

 from the ground in a hard wood thicket near the edge of a 

 swamp. This nest was composed of fine dried grasses and 

 plant down, lined with hair. It measures two and a half 

 inches in depth outside, one and a half inside, the outside 

 diameter is three and a half and the inside diameter two 

 inches. The eggs measure 0.60 x 0.50, 0.64 x 0.49, 0.62 x 

 0.49, 0.62 X 0.49. 



