154 LIFE-HISTORIES OF BIRDS 



t)f the Summer Yellow Bird. When in the full 

 vigor of song, about the i5th of May, this resem- 

 blance is not so marked as has been anticipated. 

 Its melody consists, of a few short syllables, re- 

 peated rather quickly and uniformly, and with a 

 loud, distinct, and sharp intonation, and may be 

 quite accurately expressed in language by tec- 

 whit-ti-tee-whit-tl-tee:whit-fi. Whilst the singer 

 continues his protracted search for insects, the 

 irksomeness of the task is occasionally relieved 

 by whit-whl-tl-tee-tee. Its ordinary note is a 

 simple twich which is uttered very infrequently. 



As fond as this species appears to be of cultiva- 

 ted grounds and lawns, subsequently to nidification, 

 it has never been observed by us to build in similar 

 places. For this purpose it usually seeks the re- 

 tirement of thickets where there is a dense growth 

 of brier-bushes; but, occasionally, the nest occupies 

 the centre of a huge skunk-cabbage, carefully con- 

 cealed by its broad leaves, a not very agreeable 

 locality judging from a human standpoint. We 

 are told that this species is more partial to low 

 than high grounds, preferring moist to dry situa- 

 tions. Our observations have been such as to 

 warrant the assertion that there is a strong predi- 

 lection for the latter places. With but a single ex- 

 ception, all the nests which we have discovered 

 during the past five years, to the number of twenty 

 and upwards, have been built upon high grounds 

 along the borders of thickets, in comparatively dry 

 places. Ordinarily, the base of a brier-bush where 



