236 ' SINGING BIRDS. 



ditty. On their first arrival, previous to pairing, these birds 

 are Hke the rest of the genus, restless, and intently engaged 

 in the chase of insects amidst the blossoms and tender leaves ; 

 they likewise pursue common and green bottle flies with avidity 

 and success. On the 27th of June, 1831, I observed a pair 

 selecting food for their young, with their usual address and 

 activity, by the margin of a bushy and secluded swamp on the 

 west side of Fresh Pond, in this vicinity ; but I had not the 

 good fortune to discover the nest. I have, however, since, I 

 believe, discovered the nest of this bird, in a hazel copse in a 

 wood in Acton, in this State. It is fixed in the forked twigs of 

 a hazel about breast high. The fabric is rather light and airy, 

 being made externally of a few coarse blades and stalks of 

 dead grass, then filled in with finer blades of the same, the 

 whole matted and tied with caterpillar's silk, and lined with 

 very slender strips of brown bark and similar white-pine leaves. 

 It appeared to have been forsaken before its completion, and 

 the eggs I have never seen. 



In the woods around Farranville, on the Susquehanna, 

 within the range of the Alleghany chain, in the month of May, 

 1830, I saw and heard several males in full song, in the 

 shady forest trees by a small stream, and have no doubt of 

 their breeding in that situation, though I was not fortunate 

 enough to find a nest. 



This species is now a common summer resident of New England 

 and the settled portions of Canada, and occurs westward to tlie 

 Plains. It breeds in numbers as far south as the fortieth parallel, 

 and regularly, though sparingly, on the elevated lands southward 

 to Georgia ; is not an uncommon summer visitor to the Maritime 

 Provinces, and is quite common in Manitoba. It wint'^rs south- 

 ward to the Bahamas and Central America. 



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