226 LIFE-HISTORIES OF BIRDS 



without exciting distrust or creating alarm. But 

 when an effort is made to violate this confidence 

 by hostile intentions, the female glides silently out 

 of the nest and does not exert herself in the least 

 to ward off any attack; but the male when not 

 absent on foraging business, is close by the nest 

 and ready by his valor to resent an injury or to deter 

 an assault. With open bill and vehement scold- 

 ing he hazards his own life; resembling in this 

 respect both Vireo noveboracensis and V. gilvus.. 



After incubation, both parents are kept con- 

 stantly employed in furnishing their young with 

 suitable nourishment. Their bill of fare consists 

 of the larvae of Anisopteryx vernata, A. pometaria, 

 Eufitchia ribearia, Zerenc catenaria, Choerodes 

 transversata^ Hybernia liliaris and other geome- 

 ters which infest our trees; Tabanus lineola, Musca 

 domestica, various species of Ortalis and Anthomya^ 

 the common Culex, and others. Add to these 

 the various species of Cynips that infest our oaks, 

 and small lepidoptera, both diurnal and nocturnal, 

 with a few coleoptera, and we have a bill of fare 

 which cannot fail to please the most fastidious 

 bon vivanl among avcs. 



When the young are able to provide their own 

 food, which is the case in about . a week after 

 leaving the 'nest, (they being between u and 12 

 days of age at the time), they are no longer depend- 

 ent upon their parents. But a single brood is 

 reared in a season. 



After the breeding-period is over, the male 



