_Food._--The parula warbler is almost wholly insectivorous. Its food is mainly obtained in the deciduous trees, where it is often seen among the branches and twigs or hanging downward under a cluster of leaves or blossoms like a chickadee searching for small insects, beetles, flies, moths, larvae, and egg clusters. Some flying insects are taken on the wing; and occasionally the bird may be seen feeding on the ground. Dr. Wetmore (1916) reports on the contents of 61 stomachs from Porto Rico, which contained 97.7 percent animal matter and only 2.3 percent vegetable matter. The latter "consisted of seeds of small berries of the camacey (_Miconia prasina_) and others." In the animal food, beneficial insects and a large number of spiders amounted to about 35 percent, and the remainder were all harmful pests. "Lantern flies (Fulgoridae) (19.09 percent) were identified in 29 stomachs. * * * Other bugs (3.69 percent) comprise small numbers of leaf bugs, species of the chinch bug family, stink-bugs, and a few predaceous assassin bugs. The birds are fond of beetles, and this order supplies 22.53 percent of the food, nearly all being injurious species. Ladybird beetles (1.36 percent) were present in 14 stomachs. Longicorn beetles (1.68 percent) were taken 11 times, and leaf beetles of several species (7.95 percent) were eaten by 30 of these birds." Other beetles taken included darkling beetles, skin beetles, scarred-snout weevils, coffee leaf-weevils, stalk borers, and curculios. Among other items were a few ants and other small Hymenoptera (3.57 percent) and flies (1.19 percent). Caterpillars were found in 18 stomachs and moths in 4. Spiders (29.53 percent) were identified in 29 stomachs. Stuart T. Danforth (1925), from Puerto Rico, adds berries of _Varronia angustifolia_ and fleabeetles, and says that large moth eggs were eaten by two birds, forming 25 percent of their food. Forbush (1929) says that "it feeds much on small hairless inch-worms, such as the fall canker-worm and the spring canker-worm, and on the younger and smaller hairy caterpillars, such as the gipsy and the tent caterpillar." _Behavior._--The parula warbler is less active in its movements, more sedate and deliberate, than most of the other tree-top wood warblers. It creeps along the branches and hops from twig to twig, often clinging to the under side of a cluster like a chickadee, an action that led some of the early writers to refer to it as a small titmouse, and it sometimes clings to the trunk of a tree like a nuthatch in its search for food. The birds are fearless and confiding, and are easily approached. Even when their nest is disturbed they come within a few feet of the intruder, making little, if any, protest or demonstration. George B. Sennett (1878) tells the following story, illustrating the confiding nature of the bird: