136 LIFE-HISTORIES OF BIRDS 



Its flight is short and gracefully undulating. 

 The song of this Warbler is lacking in compass 

 and variety, although, far from disagreable. Mr. 

 Nuttall characterizes it at times as aproximating 

 the simpler trills of the canary, but, ordinarily, a 

 reverberating, gently-increasing or murmuring 

 sound resembling er-r-rrrrr-ah. In the spring- 

 time it sounds like twc-twe-tw-tw-tzv-tiv-tw and 

 sometimes like tsh-tsJi-tsh-hu-tw-tw-tw uttered with 

 an agreeable cadence. The note of the female is 

 said to resemble that of Mniotilta varia. 



Its food consists of insects in their various de- 

 velopmental stages. Early in the spring many 

 coleoptera are eagerly devoured. We have identi- 

 fied in our examinations remains of Bostrichus 

 pini, Cratonychus cinereus, C. pcrtinax, Cymindis 

 viridipennis, Platynus cupripcnnis, besides the hy- 

 menopterous forms of Formica sanguinca, F. sub- 

 terranea, and others. Later, the larvae and ova 

 of Anisoptcryx vernata, Clisiocampa Americana, 

 Citheronia regalis, E,acles iniperialis, besides many 

 mature forms of our early Noctuid<z and Tineidte, 

 and earthworms. In the autumn the berries of 

 Juniperus Virginiana, Cornus canadensis, and the 

 seeds of various species of Pinus. 



Its most northern breeding-quarters are proba- 

 bly in Massachusetts, where it has been found to 

 be very abundant, particularly in the western part, 

 by Mr. Allen; and in the east as high up as Lynn, 

 by George O. Welch, Esq. There is good reason 

 to suppose that it breeds in New Jersey, since the 



