114 LIFE-HISTORIES OF BIRDS 



heard save when the weather israinv, and when the birds are 

 breeding. We have occasionally heard it when the condition 

 of the atmosphere portended a coming storm. To our ear. 

 there seems to be a kind of pensive sadness in the sound. 

 which vibrates a sympathetic chord in the bosom. 



Whilst foraging, it frequents the borders of thickets, waste 

 fields in damp situations, and not unfrequently strays beyond 

 these localities, into the territory of civilized man. Its food 

 consists mainly of insects, although a few seeds and berries 

 are eaten, when a full supply of its favorite articles is not to 

 be had. An examination of many stomachs early in the 

 spring, gives evident traces of the following insects, both col- 

 eopterous and orthopterous : Pangus caliginosus, Har pa- 

 ins compar, U. perisylvanicus, II. carbonarius, Platynns 

 cupripennis, Haltica cJialybea, Diccelus dilatatus, Scar if es 

 subterraneus, Acheta nigra, CEdipoda nebulosa, CE. sul- 

 phurea, and others. Later, caterpillars of Anisopteryx ver- 

 nata, A. pomctaria, Zerenc catenaria, Hybernia tiliaria, 

 Ennomos subsignaria, Utetheisa bella, and mature Nocin- 

 idce, Lyccenidce, and Tortricidce. Its vegetable food is 

 chiefly the seeds of grasses, and the berries of Juniper.us 

 Virginiana. 



Shortly after their arrival the sexes pair, say about the 

 tenth of May, and are ready to construct their nest. But a 

 little time is spent in preliminaries. The nest is usually 

 placed in a cedar-tree, sometimes a low bush being selected, 

 but never at a great height. In building low, it imitates 

 Americanus. The labor of building is performed by both 

 birds, who work with considerable /eal, scarcely abandoning 

 the task in the daytime save to procure food, until the struc- 

 ture is completed. So comparatively rude and unfinished 

 is the fabric, manifesting but the slightest evidence of design. 

 that the birds are seldom longer than two days in preparing 

 it for occupation. 



A typical nest is composed of a basis of small rotten sticks, 

 upon which is reared a superstructure of roots, strips of bark. 



