1 66 ■ LIFE-HISTORIES OF BIRDS 



The flight of this bird is low, gliding, and 

 moderately sustained. 



During its brief stay of a week it is apparently 

 silent; not so much as a simple call has it been 

 heard to utter. Coming alone and being a solitary 

 and voracious feeder, its attention is so completely 

 engrossed with appetital gratification, that other 

 influences are temporarily held in abeyance. Its 

 call-note is said by Mr. Audubon to resemble that 

 of Spiza ciris, but difficult to distinguish; but its 

 song of three syllables is loud, cheerful and agree- 

 able, and resembles weet, weei, wsetee. The species 

 is pre-eminently vocal in the spring, so says the 

 sime writer, but ceases altogether at the time of 

 the first hatching; its song is resumed when the 

 mate is again sitting on her second set of eggs. 



Its food consists of beetles, two-winged flies, 

 and lepidoptera, principally. Although chiefly 

 aerial, so to speak, in foraging for food. It is never- 

 theless, both arboreal and terrestrial. The fol- 

 lowing insects constitute a portion of its volumin- 

 ous bill of fare: — Cymindis viridipennis, Donacia 

 metallica, D. coinflumta, Bostrichus pini, Chryso- 

 mela cceruleipennis, Casnonia pznnsylvanica and 

 Culex taeniorhynchus, among diptera; Apis melli- 

 fica, Formica sangninea, F. subterranea, Selandria. 

 rosce, Megachile centunndaris, and various species 

 of /T^/eV/^i- among hymenoptera; Utetheisa bella, 

 LHhosia miniata, Anisopteiyx vsrnata, in larval 

 state, mature forms of Spilosoma Virgijiica, and 

 manyofthe smaller A^^i-/«/rtfe and Tineidcs; besides 

 various species of aphides and spiders. 



