318 NOIM'll AMKKICA.V IMUDS. 



Tliis bird winters in U\v<io. niinilicis in Central Ainericii, wliere it is ii])])ar- 

 entiy very genen Uy distrilmted. Mr. Salvin I'uuiiil it very coniinnn at l)n- 

 enas. It was taken ut Tutontepee, aiuonj,' the niouutuins of Oaxaeii, Mexico, 

 liy Mr. Iidiieard. 



Air. Iiidgway IViund it very eonnuon during tiie .summer and autumn 

 months among tiie willows of the fertile river valley.s, and among the rank 

 shrubbery bordering upon the streams of tlu! eanons of the higher interior 

 range of mountain.s. It was found in similar situations with Um JJiitflroim 

 os/ira, but it was mueh more numerous. During Septendjer it was most 

 abundant among the thiekets and eopses of the East Ihunboldt Mountains, 

 and in lluby Valley, ut all altitudes, frequenting the bushes along the sti'eams, 

 from their sourees in the snow to the valleys. 



Wilson first met with and described this species from specimens obtained 

 in Delaware and New .Jersey., lie regarded it as an inhabitant of the swam])3 

 of the .Southern States, and chariieterized its .song as "a sharp, s(jueaking 

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

 October. 



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

 mer month.s, but passes rapidly through them on its way to the northern dis- 

 tricts, where it breeds, reacliing Labrador early in June and returning by the 

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

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

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

 streams fringed with low Itushes. 



Mr. Xuttall observed this species in Oregon, where it arrived early in May. 

 He calls it a " little cheerful songster, the very counterpart of our In-illiant 

 and cheerful Yellow-Iiird." Their song he describes as like 'tHh-'tsh-'tsh-tshea, 

 Their call is brief, and not so loud. It appeared familiar and nnsus])icious, 

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

 ment by an occasional and earnest warlde. l}y the 12th of May some were 

 already i'eeding their full-tledged young. Yet on the 10th of the sanie month 

 he found a uest containing ibur eggs with iticubation only j\ist commenced. 

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

 concealment, upon a mass of Uxiim. It was built chiefly of hypnum mosses, 

 witli a thick lining of dry, wiry, slentler grasses. The female, when ap- 

 proached, slipi»ed off the nest, and ran along the ground like a mouse. The 

 eggs were very similar to those of Dendroica a'diva, with spots of a pale 

 olive-brown, confluent at the greater end. 



A nest found by Audubon in Labi'ador 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 fine 

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



