318 xoirrif AMKiiirAX \i\n\)>i. 



Tliis hud winters in hv<j,v nunilu'is in Central Anu;ricii, wliere it is apiKir- 

 untlv Vfi'V j^cncnillv flistriluUeil. Mr. Salvin tuund it very coninion at l)u- 

 enas. It was taken at TotuntL'jKic, among the niuiiutains ol" Uaxaca, Mexico, 

 l»y Mr. iMmcanl. 



Mr. llitl"iwav loun«l it very connimn (liirin<' the sunimer and autumn 

 months annuii,' the willows nf tlie fertile river valleys, and amon«j: the rank 

 shru])l)ery bordering upon the streams of the canons of the higher interior 

 range of mountains. It was found in similar sii nations with the Jk/ufraira 

 a.stira, but it was much nmre numerous. During Sej)teml>er it was most 

 abundant among the thickets and co})ses of the J^^ist Humboldt ^b)untains, 

 and in lluby Valley, at all altitudes, freipienting the bushes along the streams, 

 from their sources in the snow U\ the valleys. 



Wilson first met with ami described this species from specimens obtained 

 in Delaware and New »Iersey.. He regarded it as an inhabitant of the swam2)s 

 of the Southern States, and characterized its song as "a sharp, scpieaking 

 note, in no wise musical." It is said by him to leaye the Southern States iu 

 October. 



Audubon states that it is never found in the Southern States in the sum- 

 mer months, but passes raj)idly through them on its way to the northern dis- 

 tricts, where it breeds, reaching Laljrador early in June and returning by the 

 middle of August. He describes it as having all the haltits of a true Fly- 

 catcher, feeding on small insects, which it catches on the wing, snapping its 

 bill with a sharp clicking sound. It frecpients the borders of lakes and 

 streams fringed with low bushes. 



Mr. Nuttall observed this species in Oregon, ^vhere it arrived early in ^lay. 

 He calls it a "little cheerful songster, the very counterpart of our brilliant 

 and cheerful Yellow-Iiird."' Their S(Hig he describes as like 'tsh-tsh-tsh-fshca. 

 Their call is brief, and not so loud. It appeared familiar and iinsus]»icious, 

 kept in bushes busily collecting its insect fare, and only varied its employ- 

 ment by an occasional and earnest warble. Jjy the l'2th of May some were 

 already feeding their full-fledLred young. Yet on the Ibth of the same month 

 he found a nest containing four eggs with incubation only just connnenced. 

 This nest was in a branch of a small service-bush, laid very adroitly, as to 

 concealment, uj)on a mass of Usnca. It was built chiefly of hypnum mosses, 

 with a thick lining of dry, ^viry, slentler grasses. The female, when ap- 

 proached, slipped off the nest, and ran along the ground like a mouse. The 

 eggs were very similar to those of Dcndroka adica, with spots of a pale 

 olive-brown, confluent at the greater end. 



A nest found by Audubon in Labrador was placed on the extremity of a 

 small horizontal branch, among the thick foliage of a dwarf fir, a few feet 

 from the ground and in the very centre of a thicket. It was made of bits of 

 dry mosses and delicate pine twigs, agglutinated together and to the branches 

 and leaves around it, from which it was suspended. It was lined with tine 

 vegetable fibres. The diameter of the nest was three and a half and the 



