OF EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA. 103 



nal migration, making its appearance not earlier 

 than the loth of May, and then only in high open 

 woodlands where it is a busy gleaner among the 

 foliage and branchlets for various insects. It is an 

 exceedingly active little creature, and in habits re- 

 sembles both the Paridce and Vireonidtz. With 

 the nimbleness and gracefulness of Pants atrica- 

 pillus, it clambers about, freely suspending itself 

 from the under surface of a branch, and ever and 

 anon being diverted therefrom by a passing insect 

 which it seizes with great adroitness, after the 

 fashion of the Vireos. 



Whilst in wooded regions its foraging is re- 

 stricted to the uppermost branches, and is pro- 

 secuted with considerable celerity, froni branch to 

 branch, and from tree to tree. But as its stay is 

 prolonged, it changes its base of operation; about 

 the time the apple is in blossom, it visits our 

 orchards and lawns for the insects which are at- 

 tracted to their bloom. It now becomes notably 

 tame and unsuspicious and easy of approach. 



Its food consists almost wholly of small beetles 

 which it gleans among the leaves, and various 

 small diptera which Vireo-like it captures on the 

 wing. Although chiefly arboreal, it is not exclu- 

 sively so, as it occasionally descends to the earth to 

 complete a meal. We have found within its stomach, 

 larvae of, Cr atony chits cinereus, mature forms of 

 Chrysomela cceruleipennis, Platynus cupripennis, 

 Cymindis viridipennis, Harpalus compar, B^strichus 

 pini, Formica sang^dnea^ Apis melliftca, a species 



