ANIMAL BEHAVIOR, WITH EXAMPLES 225 



of the painter's brush, afford a dreamy nook for the hiding 

 place of this warbler. The ground all around is covered with 

 dewberries, forming a mat upon the earth. Blue flag and 

 sedges, boneset and grasses, each have a place in this enchanted 

 home. First one bird, then another, sings his cheery song, 

 and we wonder that our presence is not an intrusion. Leading 

 us unto this beautiful spot, we soon find that the birds have 

 seemed to escape by the back trail, for now the distant note 

 seems still to say, " Be-with-you — be-with-you — be-with-you ! " 

 But the birds have played their parts of ventriloquists so well 

 that they have had time to disappear altogether. 



As late as 7.20 p.m., one evening, I heard the Maryland 

 yellow-throat singing beside the country road. At the same 

 time the chimney-swift was also seen flitting high in space. 

 The voices of the birds were quieting down before the advent 

 of night, but still I could hear the mournful coo of the dove. 

 These notes in the quiet of the evening, when the afterglow is 

 lighting the landscape, are most enjoyable. A robin seems to 

 want his voice heard, and stationed on a fence post he gives 

 out a varied song as late as half-past seven. Even the barn 

 swallow is making his last rapid flight through space. Then, 

 finally, the Maryland yellow-throat comes forth again with 

 the last song of the parting day, mounts into the air almost 

 perpendicularly for about a hundred feet, then as suddenly 

 drops toward the earth. As he takes his farewell evening flight, 

 he has not lost the opportunity to assert his last cheery song, 

 " Be-with-you — be-with-you — be-with-you! " ^ 



' In the illustration I have figured a pair of Maryland yellow-throats with 

 a nest, which I found at Riverdale, Illinois, on July 17, 1889. It was built at 

 the border of the Calumet River, in tall grasses a foot from the ground. Three 

 young birds just hatched and one egg were the contents of the nest at the time 

 I found it. 



