490 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



ters it is apt to lose its presence of mind, and to be forced to make an igno- 

 minious retreat. 



Tliese birds are said to be attracted by collections of cattle and horses, 

 upon the bodies of whicli they are often seen to alight, feeding upon the 

 ticks with wliich they are infested. They are at once familiar and wary, 

 jiornutting a limited acquaintance, but a too near approach sets the whole 

 flock in motion. It moves in a very peculiar gliding Hight. In feeding it 

 is omnivorous ; besides insects of all kinds, sucli as ticks, grasshoppers, bee- 

 tles, etc., it eats berries of various kinds, lizards, and other kinds of food. 

 It catches insects on the ground by very active jumps, pursues them on the 

 wing, and with its sliarp thin bill digs them out in the earth. They hop 

 about and over the bodies of cattle, especially when they are lyi'.g down, 

 and when grazing they have been observed clinging to a cow's tail, picking 

 insects from it as far down even as its extremity. 



^Ir. Hill states that these birds are downward, not upward, climbers. 

 They enter a tree by alighting on the extremity of some main l)ranch, and 

 reach its centre by creeping along the stem, and seldom penetrate far among 

 the leaves. 



The eggs of this species are of a regularly oval shape, equally obtuse at 

 either end. In color they are of a uniform light-blue, with a very sliglit 

 tinge of green. This is usually covered, but not entirely concealed, by a 

 white cretaceous coating. When fresh, this may readily be rubbed off, but 

 becomes hard and not easily removed. The eggs vary in size from 1.40 to 

 1.50 inches in length, and in breadth from 1.10 to 1.15 inches. 



