206 
NESTS AND EGGS OF 
food-stufFs. Its immense service in the destruction of injurious grubs, 
which contribute largely to its fare, would make it a desirable companion 
to have about us, but its humble mode of life exposes it to dangers from 
prowling cats and vicious boys. 
When in quest of game its presence is always indicated by the 
peculiar cry it emits, which resembles that of the Summer Yellow-Bird. 
These notes are expressed in lively, quick succession, and sound like the 
syllables ivMt-wM-ti-tee-tee . In a state of inactivity, a simple twlch is all 
that escapes the hitherto agile creature, and is uttered in such a low voice 
as to more than half impress the listener that the bird is weary after its 
long, 251’Otracted search, or is verging towards that state when the spirit is 
well-nigh overcome by sleep. It is during these foraging exploits that our 
friend’s character is seen in its best light. It is not the timid bird that 
one is disposed to consider it when watching its backward and forward 
movements among low shrubbery on such occasions. It will permit a near 
approach by man, even when resting from its labors, and displays not 
more than half the suspicion which birds ordinarily do. 
Like most Warblers, this species regulates its coming, in a measure, 
by the character of the season. When the spring is early, we have known 
it to arrive during the last of April. Ordinarily its appearance is no- 
ticed from the first to the tenth of May. In California, where the climate 
is more uniform than in the East, birds have been seen in migration on 
the seventeenth of April ; but in New England, where mild weather is 
retarded by meteorological causes, their advent does not occur until the 
beginning of the succeeding month. As is common with most other birds, 
the sexes do not arrive singly, except in occasional instances, but always 
in pairs, which seems to warrant the supposition that mating had been 
solemnized in the land of their winter’s sojourn preparatory to leaving. 
So little is the attention engrossed by feeding, that the male does not 
appear to be utterly unmindful of his partner, as is sometimes the case 
with other species. Should one or the other stray away, the bird that first 
