. Birds of the Colorado valley ... scientific and popular information concerning North American ornithology;. Birds. SYNONYMY OF VIEEO HUTTONI 525 are peculiarly exposed to danger in their lowly homes; their ardor exhausts itself when the occasion is past, and what had been excessive solicitude gives way to the simple sprightliness and vivacity, which then appears as an agreeable trait. In the springtime they rival their relatives in brilliancy and ver- satility of song, which must be heard to be appreciated; it is a curious medley, delivered with great earnestness and almost endless variation
. Birds of the Colorado valley ... scientific and popular information concerning North American ornithology;. Birds. SYNONYMY OF VIEEO HUTTONI 525 are peculiarly exposed to danger in their lowly homes; their ardor exhausts itself when the occasion is past, and what had been excessive solicitude gives way to the simple sprightliness and vivacity, which then appears as an agreeable trait. In the springtime they rival their relatives in brilliancy and ver- satility of song, which must be heard to be appreciated; it is a curious medley, delivered with great earnestness and almost endless variations, scarcely to be described in words, though several authors have made the attempt—with what success the reader who has listened to the performance may judge for him- self on referring to the pages of Futtall or of Mr. Gentry. I have only to add to this sketch of a bird I learned as a boy to know pleasantly, that it is in no wise behind its relatives of the same genus in doing service by destroying noxious insects. Dr. Brewer says that it feeds eagerly upon the destructive canker-worm, and is doubtless of considerable service in restricting the increase of this scourge in some portions of the country. Prof. Aughey has it down in the long list of birds that feed in Nebraska on the still more destructive locusts, stating that he watched them with a field-glass, and saw them tear a large 'hopper in pieces to give to their young ones. Mr. Gentry observes that the nestlings are fed with the larvae of PlialcenidcB, as well as with diptera, spiders, aphides, and ants, and that the birds devour immense numbers of coleopterous, hymenopterous, lepidopterous. and dipterous insects—his for- mal list of which is suflttciently extensive to prove that we owe to this sprightly tenant of the shrubbery a debt of gratitude that should privilege the bird to scold us, on occasion, as much as it pleases. Hutton's Greenlet Tireo huttoni Vlreo bnttODl, Oass. Pr. Phila. Acad, 1851,150, pi. 10, f. 1
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