202 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



April, and sometimes is seen by the first week in that 

 month. In its habits, it resembles both the Creepers and 

 Warblers ; moving about the bodies and limbs of trees with 

 the ease of the former, and gleaning amongst the foliage the 

 insect hosts like the latter. I have sometimes seen it seize 

 a flying insect while on the wing, although this must have 

 been a departure from its general habits. 



The song of the male during the mating season is a sort 

 of lisping rendition of the syllables wMchee, whechee, 

 whechee, whechee, uttered at first loud, and gradually weak- 

 ening to a subdued note, like cheet. At other times, it has 

 only a faint chirp or chink, which is uttered by both sexes. 

 About the 10th of May, after the birds have paired, they 

 commence building the nest : this, Audubon says, in Louis- 

 iana " is usually placed in some small hole in a tree, and 

 is composed of mosses in a dry state, and lined with cottony 

 substances." In New England, it is almost always built, or 

 rather placed, on the ground ; the situation is chosen usually 

 beneath an overhanging point of rock, or beneath a fallen 

 trunk of a tree : it is made of mosses, straw, leaves, and 

 other soft materials, and is lined with cotton from ferns, 

 soft grass, or hair. The eggs are laid by the middle of 

 May. They are usually four or five in number : their color 

 is white, with a slight cream tinge ; and they are spotted 

 irregularly with fine dots and confluent blotches of reddish- 

 brown, thickest near the largest end of the egg. Dimen- 

 sions of four eggs found in a nest in Reading, Mass. : .66 

 by .54 inch, .66 by .54 inch, .65 by .54 inch, .65 by .54 

 inch. Two broods are occasionally reared by this species in 

 southern New England. 



Probably the greater number breed in more northern 

 localities ; for it is much more common in the spring and 

 fall than in summer. By the 10th of September, they move 

 on their southern migration ; and, after the 15th or 20th of 

 that month, none are to be seen in New England. 



