OP EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA. 219 



It probably spends its winter-quarters about 

 Orizaba, as numbers have been observed there at 

 this time, by Sumichrast; and most likely reaches 

 this latitude by entering Texas, and following the 

 courses of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. 



Like Vireo olivaceus in habits, and equally as 

 expert, it does immense service to man, in the 

 destructfoti of vast numbers of injurious insects, 

 as well as those that are beneficial. Its food is 

 principally of a dipterous and lepidopterous 

 character, and consists of Musca domestica, Taba- 

 nus lineola, T. cinctus, Tipula ferruginea, Culex 

 tcsniorhynchus, and others among the two-winged 

 flies ; and Anisopteryx vernata, A. pcmetaria, Ze- 

 rene catenana, Ennomos subsignaria, Eufitckia 

 ribearia, Angeronia crocutaria, Limacodes scapha, 

 among lepidoptera; besides, aphides, and the hy- 

 menopterous forms • of Apis mellifica, Selandria 

 rosce, and Megachile centuncularis. 



Its nest is usually placed in the vicinity of dwell- 

 ings as previously remarked, and very often over 

 frequented streets. We have known cases where 

 secluded localities have been selected, but very 

 rarely. Nidification commences ordinarily about 

 the 15th of May. The nest is an elaborately 

 woven basket-like structure, carefully, neatly, and 

 closely built, and suspended from a forked twig 

 near the top of a tree ; and, occasionally, at the ex- 

 tremity of an upper branch, at an elevation of 

 thirty feet from the ground. The birds- mostly 

 select a Maple for this purpose. The nest is se- 



