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INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 
those which are bitter or astringent.) They have generally but a 
single brood in the season ; they perch on the summits of trees, living 
in single pairs in the forest where they form their nests, often morn- 
ing and evening, and sometimes nearly the whole day, taking a 
station near some stagnant water, and flying to and from this perch 
alternately after hovering insects. The broad-billed North American 
species are taciturn, or have only a few quaint, stridulous calls and 
cries, and form no attachment to those who feed them in a state of 
domestication, yet eat greedily ; these also have only one moult in 
the year. — In another section, or rather genus, allied to Sylvia, the 
voice is melodious, and the moult of the male double, arriving in the 
spring in a more brilliant nuptial plumage. The young differ from 
the adult only during the first year. The shells and drier parts of in- 
sects, as well as the skins and seeds of fruits, are brought up from 
the stomach, and ejected by the bill. 
t Muscipeta. With the moult single , and the voice without cadence . 
* Larger species (or Tyranni). 
These are unusually petulant, tyrannical, and courageous, driving 
sometimes from the vicinity of their nests the most powerful birds 
of prey e 
