232 LIFE-HISTORIES Op BIRDS 



the intruder in perfect silence, and will suffer her 

 nest to be outraged without, seemingly, manifest- 

 ing any anxiety. The male has never been 

 observed by us, in the immediate neighborhood of 

 the nest, from which we infer, that he keeps at a 

 wary distance. But, however, he is a very atten- 

 tive provider for the wants of his progeny. In 

 his attentions to the latter he is unrivalled by his 

 partner. The young are prepared to leave the 

 nest in about twelve days after hatching, and in a 

 week more are fitted to attend to their own neces- 

 sities. A single brood is raised in a season. 



A typical nest of this species is generally sus- 

 pended from a small bush, or the lowermost 

 branch of a tree, seldom at a greater elevation 

 than twelve feet from the ground. It is neatly 

 and compactly woven, and is as beautiful an ex- 

 ample of the pensile style of nest, the orioles' 

 excepted, as can be conceived. Exteriorly, it is 

 composed of leaves, fragments of decayed wood, 

 inner bark of deciduous trees, culms of grasses, 

 vegetable fibres, held together by impacted masses 

 of divers mosses, which also attach the nest to 

 the twigs from which it is suspended. Interiorly, 

 there is a lining of fine grasses, with horse-hair, 

 occasionally; the whole being smoothly and neatly 

 adjusted. 



Tne young are fed with the larvae of the Phalce- 

 nidcz, diptera, spiders, aphides, and ants as above 

 mentioned. 



This species retires to its winter home early in 



