116 WARBLING FLYCATCHER. 



them. On the sixteenth day after their exclusion from the egg, they took 

 to wing, and ascended the branches of the tree, with surprising ease and 

 firmness. They were fed another day after, on the same tree, and roosted 

 close together in a row on a small twig, the parents just above them. 

 The next morning they flew across the street, and betook themselves to 

 a fine peach-orchard several hundred yards from my lodging. Never had 

 HcBER watched the operations of his bees with more intentness than I 

 had employed on this occasion, and I bade them adieu at last with great 

 regret. 



The principal food of this species consists of small black caterpillars, 

 which that season infested all the poplars in the street. They searched 

 for them in the manner of the Red-eyed Flycatcher and Blue-eyed Yelr 

 low Warbler, moving sidewise along the twigs, like the latter, now and 

 then balancing themselves on the wing opposite their prey, and snapping 

 it in the manner of the Muscicapa Ruticilla, sometimes alighting sidewise 

 on the tree, seldom sallying forth in pursuit of insects more than a few 

 yards, and always preferring to remain among the branches. I never saw 

 either of the old birds disgorge pellets, as I have seen Pewees do. 



I observed that they now and then stood in a stiffened attitude, ba- 

 lancing their body from side to side on the joint of the tarsus and toes, 

 as on a hinge, but could not discover the import of this singular action. 

 During the love days of the pair mentioned above, the male would spread 

 its little wings and tail, and strut in short circles round the female, pour- 

 ing out a low warble so sweet and mellow that I can compare it only to the 

 sounds of a good musical box. The female received these attentions with- 

 out coyness, and I have often thought that these birds had been attached 

 to each other before that season. 



No name could have been imposed upon this species with more pro- 

 priety than that of the Warbling Flycatcher. The male sings from morn- 

 ing to night, so sweetly, so tenderly, with so much mellowness and soft- 

 ness of tone, and yet with notes so low, that one might think he sings only 

 for his beloved, without the least desire to attract the attention of rivals. 

 In this he differs greatly from most other birds. Even its chiding notes — 

 tsche, tsche, were low and unobtruding. The nestlings uttered a lisping 

 sound, not unlike that of a young mouse. The only time I saw the old 

 birds ruffled, was on discovering a brown lizard ascending their tree. 

 They attacked it courageously, indeed furiously, and although I did not 

 see them strike it, compelled it to leave the place. 



