i6o 



Bird- Lore 



The young birds leave the nest when they are nine or ten days old. At this 

 age the upper parts are a mottled brown; the under parts are whitish, streaked 

 ^\ith dark brown or black, and there is a faint chestnut wash on the sides. They 

 soon change this dull dress, however, for the handsome, parti-colored plumage 

 of the adult birds. 



The song — a sim{)le melody — is usually whistled when the bird is perched 

 ten or a dozen feet from the ground. Now and then, I hear it from the top of the 

 tallest oak or elm in my neighborhood, and, on two occasions during the past 

 season, I heard it when the bird was on the ground. Ordinarily, the song consists 

 of two parts — the first composed of two notes and the second of a trill — but 

 sometimes the first part consists of three notes, and at times the trill is omitted. 



This species feeds on worms, seeds, and insects and their larvai, and during 

 the summer months they vary their diet by eating blackberries and wild cherries. 

 As I have seen a bird eating an acorn, it appears that nuts are also on their bill 

 of fare. Much of the food is found on the ground, and once I had an oppor- 

 tunity to see a bird while scratching among the dead leaves for a meal, make 

 short flights into the air for passing insects, in true Flycatcher style. 



Chewinks are not gregarious, and one seldom sees more than two or three 

 together. Most of them depart for the South during September, but stragglers 

 remain until the end of October, and occasionally one spends the winter in this 

 part of Massachusetts. On December 19, 1906, and again the next day, I saw 

 a solitary individual — a male, apparently in perfect condition— on the border 

 of an old roadwav in Needham. 



li i. ACK ri'.KN I >\ \i;s I' 



Photograplu-il \>y J. iM. Stlireik, :il Kilnnuiliin, 



