232 LIFE-HISTORIER OF BIRDS 



the intruder in perfect silence, and will suffer her 

 nest to be outraged without, seemingly, manifest- 

 ing any anxiety. The male has never been 

 observed by us; in the immediate neighborhood of 

 the nes,t, from, which we dnfer, that he keeps at a 

 wary distance. But, however, he is a very atten- 

 tive provider for the wants of his progeny. In 

 his attentions to the latter he is unrivalled by his 

 partner. The young are prepared to leave the 

 nest in about t\yelve days after hatching, and in a 

 week more are fitted to attend to their own neces- 

 sities. A'single brood is raised in a season. 



A typical nest of this species is generally sus- 

 pended from a small bush, or the lowermost 

 branch of a tree, seldom at a greater elevation 

 than twelve feet from the ground. It is neatly 

 and compactly woven, and is as beautiful an ex- 

 ample of the pensile style of nest, the orioles' 

 excepted, as can be conceived. Exteriorly, it is 

 composed of leaves, fragments of decayed wood, 

 inner bark pf deciduous trees, culms of grasses, 

 vegetable fibres, held together by impacted masses 

 of divers mosses, which .also attach the nest to 

 the .|wigs from which it is suspended. Interiorly, 

 there is a lining of fine grasses,, with horse-hair, 

 occasionally; the whole being.smopthly and neatly 

 adjusted. 



Tne young are fed with the larvse of the PkcUcs- 

 nidce, diptera, spiders, aphides, and ants as above 

 mentioned. 



This gpecies retires to its winter home early in 



