SONG BIRDS OF ORCHARD AND WOODLAND. 207 



less vigorous. Its song is a rather low, weak, but pleasing 

 and continuous warble, resembling somewhat in quality the 

 song of the Purple Finch, but not nearly so loud and bold. 

 It has not the abrupt and intermittent phrasing of the song 

 of the preceding species, but is sweeter, more tender, and 

 less monotonous. 



This bird is of immense service to man in the destruction 

 of vast numbers of injurious insects that infest the trees 

 about the house, garden, and orchard, as well as those of 

 the woods. As it is quite a flycatcher, both crawling larvae 

 and winged imagoes suffer from its depredations. Horseflies 

 and other dipterous insects, crane flies and mosquitoes, are 

 all taken. Its food, however, consists largely of caterpillars 

 and other leaf-eating insects ; among these are the imported 

 elm-leaf beetle (Galerucetta luteola) and the twelve-spotted 

 cucumber beetle. Grasshoppers are not neglected. Occa- 

 sionally useful flies, ladybirds, or bees are killed, but the 

 great majority of insects eaten are injurious. The fruit taken 

 seems to be mainly wild and worthless berries. 



Yellow-throated Vireo. 



Vireo flavifrons. 



Length. — Nearly six inches. 



Adult. — Ahove, yellowish olive-green, shading into bluish-ash on rump ; mark- 

 ings about eye yellow; white wing bars; wing and tail feathers dark, 

 edged with whitish ; below, yellow from throat to belly, which is white ; 

 sides olive, shading into gray. 



Nest. — A rather large pensile cup, hung from forking twigs, three to twenty feet 

 from the ground. 



Eggs. — "White, with black and brown or purplish spots about larger end. 



Season. — May to September. 



The Yellow-throated Vireo was once evidently an inhabitant 

 of .open forests of great deciduous trees, although it is some- 

 times found in pines ; but since the destruction of the original 

 timber growth in this Commonwealth it has learned to seek 

 the great shade trees that have grown up along streets and 

 about residences or in pastures. The groves of large oaks 

 and other deciduous trees that are found on well-cared-for 

 estates are among its favorite breeding places. It often 

 dwells in old orchards. Thus it has come to live about the 

 habitations of man, and in eastern Massachusetts is more 



