402 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 



The Maryland Yellow-Throat, with cheerful devoted- 

 ness to the great object of his summer migration, the 

 attachments and cares of his species, passes his time 

 near some shady rill of water, amidst briars, brambles, 

 alders, and such other shrubbery as grow in low and wa- 

 tery situations. Unambitious to be seen, he seldom as- 

 cends above the tops of the underwood, where he dwells 

 busily employed in collecting the insects on which he 

 feeds. After these, like the Wren, he darts into the 

 deepest thicket, and threads his dev^ious way through 

 every opening ; he searches around the stems, examines 

 beneath the leaves, and raising himself on his peculiarly 

 pale and slender legs, peeps into each crevice in order 

 to seize by surprise his tiny lurking prey. While thus 

 engaged, his affection to his neighbouring mate is not 

 forgotten, and with a simplicity, agreeable and charac- 

 teristic, he twitters forth, at shf)rt intervals, his 'whititetee 

 'whititetee 'whititetee, but his more common song is 

 'whittitsJiee 'ivhittitshee, or 'wetitshee 'wetitshee wee ; and 

 sometimes I have heard his note like, ^wetitshee wetit shee, 

 'wiVyu we. On this last syllable a plaintive sinking of the 

 voice renders the lively, earnest ditty of the active minstrel 

 peculiarly agreeable. Copying apparently from the Cardi- 

 nal Bird, the song was, in one instance, which came to my 

 notice,' yz^i'j/M 'vitiyu ^vitiyu. The whole is likewise often 

 varied and lowered into a slender whisper, or tender reve- 

 rie of vocal instinct. Sometimes he calls out, teetshoo, teet- 

 shoo, and sewaidedit sewaidedit sewaiditsewee, or sewaidi- 

 dit sewaiditshvce, as he busily darts through the bloom- 

 ing and odor-breathing shrubs of the grove or garden, 

 which he examines with minute attention, and sometimes 

 springs perpendicularly after his retreating and discovered 

 prey. He appears by no means shy or suspicious, as 

 long as his nest is unapproached ; but for the safety of 



