July 



is very attractive, seems to me a trifle tiresome. 

 There is an assertiveness about any pure color, 

 still more about strongly contrasting colors, 

 that is wanting in plumage so mildly shaded 

 and streaked throughout as the yellow bird's. 

 Its tone is mild, its plumage mild, its manner 

 mild ; it is worse than sweet, it is sweetish, and 

 all in all, the little creature impresses one as 

 being excessively ajniable — a saintly quality 

 that is quite exasperating always to live with. 

 Occasional angles in one's nature are refreshing 

 interruptions to unending curvilinear mildness. 

 A more admirable creature, with a vig- 

 orous dash in its character, is the Maryland 

 ''yellow throat," also called ground warbler, 

 as it nests on the ground, and is always found 

 on or near it. The bar of jet-black across the 

 forehead and extending down on each side of 

 the head, gives it what some may smile at my 

 calHng a '' strong face " — forceful but not bold, 

 and tempered by the rich yellow on the breast. 

 With plump and shapely form and graceful mo- 

 tion, it has a certain air of both dignity and 

 vivacity that makes it an ever welcome object. 

 It prefers more open places than most of the 

 warblers, and delights in bushland, and swampy 

 ground, and the margin of streams. In refine- 



203 



