BIRDS OF MINNESOTA 399 



structure, placed on the ground, composed of various soft, 

 fibrous materials and fine grasses, mostly circularly arranged, 

 lined with fine rootlets." 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Wing but little longer than the tail, reaching but little be- 

 yond its base. Head and neck and all around, with throat and 

 forepart of breast ash-gray, paler beneath; feathers of chin, 

 throat, and forebreast in reality black but with narrow ashy 

 margins, more or less concealing the black except on the 

 breast. Lores, and region round the eye, dusky, without any 

 trace of a pale ring; upper parts and sides of the body clear 

 olive-green; under parts bright-yellow; tail feathers uniform 

 olive; first primary, with the outer half of the outer web. 

 nearly white. 



Length, 5.50; wing, 2.45; tail, 2.25. 



Habitat, eastern North America to the Plains. 



GEOTHLYPIS TRICHAS (L.). (681.) 

 MARYLAND YELLOW-THROAT. 



It took a long time to learn all the "ins and outs'^ of this 

 little warbler. If there are any remaining unlearned, they 

 must be hard to find out indeed, for there does not seem to be 

 many places circumstantially adapted to the habits of the 

 species not already occupied by a pair of representatives in 

 their season. 



It reaches the vicinity of Minneapolis about the 27th of 

 April, and is reported from nearly every part of the State by 

 the 5th of May. The nests are built and occupied by about 

 the last days of that month. They are constructed of leaves 

 mixed with grasses, and lined with finer grass and hairs. They 

 are placed on the ground close to a bush and are quite bulky. 

 They often have their entrance provided for in one side, after 

 the manner of the Golden-crowned Thrush. They rear two 

 broods, and are gone by the 20th of September usually. Its 

 song is quite strikingly rendered into words by Rev. J. H. 

 Langille in the formula, iveech-a-tee, loeech-a-tee, weecha-tee, 

 weech-a-tee, in distinct, whistling notes, never to be confounded 

 with those of any other songster. It is delivered rather delib- 

 erately, with the accent strongly on the first syllable. Under 

 some circumstancess, the note is abbreviated by one syllable, 

 leaving it lueecli-ee, weech-ee, tveec7i-ee, loeech-ee, with only a faint 

 touch upon the last, when it somewhat resembles the song of 

 another warbler. When they first arrive they must be sought 



