230 USEFUL BIRDS. 
quick, emphatic note. At intervals it flits out after its fly- 
ing victims, and, returning again to its perch on some old 
apple tree, awaits, with quivering wings, another opportunity. 
It prefers open woods and orchards, or shade trees growing 
on dry land, rather than dense forests or swamps. It is 
rather pugnacious, and, though it rarely molests other small 
birds unless they encroach on its domain, it is very brave 
in defence of its nest and young. The following, from Mr. 
Mosher’s notes, shows how it will defend its rights : — 
May 15, 1899.— A pair of Least Flycatchers had just begun their 
nest in an apple tree by placing some bunches of cottony material and 
a few strings and straws. A female Oriole, happening along, appro- 
priated the string for her own use, and carried it away. The Fly- 
catchers came soon after, and were very much disturbed on finding the 
nest materials scattered, and had quite a talk overit. Inafew moments 
the Oriole came back for more string, when both Flycatchers flew at her 
and snapped their bills savagely in her face. The Oriole did not seem 
to mind them much, and kept on going toward the nest. When the. 
Flycatchers found they could not scare her in this way, they both attacked 
her fiercely, and pulled out quite a number of feathers, keeping up a 
steady scold. The Oriole attempted to retaliate, but when she attacked 
one of the Flycatchers the other struck her from the other side, and 
several times she was knocked completely off the branch. Finally she 
beat a precipitate retreat, one of the Flycatchers chasing her out of 
sight. 
The call note of the Chebec is a wzt, and the bird has a 
more subdued note, a peu, or wheu, often several times re- 
peated. In the mating season the male sometimes utters a 
series of twittering notes while 
hovering over the tree in which 
his mate is sitting. 
Like all Flycatchers, this spe- 
cies catches flies, among them 
the common house fly, and also 
; : some useful parasitic flies. It 
Fig. 88.—Gipsy moth, male, natural, 
size. Often caught by the Least 18 by no means confined to 
myeaeie: * such food, however, but is par- 
ticularly destructive to small beetles in flight, and in this 
respect it is most useful. It captures many moths, partic- 
ularly those species that fly by day, as the gipsy moth; but 
