BIRDS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
101 
denizens of open plains and tliinly-wooded regions, where they may be 
seen from sunrise until sunset, save during the sultry noontide hours, 
leisurely moving along the lowermost tree-branches, or among low bushes 
and herbaceous weeds by the roadside, in search of insects, all the while 
uttering, at brief intervals, their characteristic chirr. Near Boston they 
frequent “ almost exclusively rocky pasture grounds and the ‘ scrub,’ ” and 
instances are recorded by Mr. Minot whei-e shrubbery in cultivated 
grounds has been visited. According to Mr. Gosse, individuals have 
been seen to fly from wayside-bushes into the middle of the road, where, 
hovering in the air, at slight elevations above the ground, they were 
apparently engaged in the capture of dipterous insects. 
But as the mating season approaches, the males become quite restless. 
They manifest less concern about food, and from some low eminence may 
he seen pouring forth their slender, filing notes, which, as Nuttall has 
represented, may be very aptly expressed by the suppressed syllables 
’ tshO tsh- tsh-tshea. These notes cannot fail to attract attention, and, when 
once heard, are sure to leave a lasting impress on the mind. They are 
uttered in a peculiar tone, each being given in a louder key than the 
preceding, and frequently with a strange depression of the tail. 
The little musicians, however, have not long to wait. For hours we 
have known some love-lorn minstrel of another species to sing his very 
soul away, without an answering note to repay him for all his trouble. 
The one for which he tuned his vocal pipe was too much occupied by 
other cares to be mindful of the delicious strains which were being wasted 
on the desert air. But not so in the present instance. The dear ones for 
whom they watch, and for whom they chant their sweetest, purest music, 
are not so far removed by hill and dale, by grove and ]3lain, are not so 
absorbed in food-concerns, as not to hear the sounds which are being 
uttered for tbeir sole j^leasure. But obedient to the call, they cease their 
feeding, turn listening ears in the directions whence the sounds issue, and 
hearing once again, with jjleasure-beaniing eyes and swelling bosoms, seek 
the lonely haunts of their would-be-suitors. The joy of the males is 
