OF NEW ENGLAND. 85 



various kinds, but pine-groves are perhaps their favorite haunts. 

 In such places they are usually to be seen on the ground, walk- 

 ing about quietly, silently, and with an amusing deliberateness, 

 and picking up their food from among the fallen leaves ; but 

 they betake themselves to trees (rather than to bushes), when 

 frightened, when engaged in their pretended or real quarrels 

 during courtship, or when they wish to utter their peculiar 

 chant. They are endowed with strong parental affection, and, 

 when the nest is approached, both male and female exhibit 

 great concern, or the latter, if disturbed whilst sitting on her 

 nest, feigns lameness, as many other ground-nesting birds do, 

 and flutters nimbly away, until, having led the unwary pursuer 

 to a distance, she "takes to wing." 



(f?). The Wagtails' loud monotony — wee-chee, wee-chee, 

 loee-chee, ivee-cJiee, ivee-chee, loee-chee, wee-chee, wee-chee, wee-chee, 

 ivee-chee, — which is repeated rapidly with a steadily increasing 

 volume, is heard, at intervals, throughout the day. Their 

 ordinary notes are a chuck of alarm, and a sharp chick, em- 

 ployed chiefly during the period of mating. At night I have 

 often heard the male sing very sweetly, his chatter being 

 followed by a low musical warble, such as I have rarely heard 

 him utter during the da}', except sometimes at dusk. He gen- 

 erally pours out this music while descending through the air 

 from a height to which he has just mounted ; but these per- 

 formances are almost exclusively confined to the season when 

 his mate is sitting on her eggs or young. 



The "Wagtails are much oftener heard than seen, the more 

 so that they are never gregarious ; but the oddity of their 

 familiar chant, the quaintness of their habits, and their strong 

 conjugal and parental affection, must ever endear them to the 

 appreciative naturalist. 



II. GEOTHLYPIS 



(A) TRicHAs. Maryland " Yelloio-throat." Black-masked 

 Ground Warbler. 



(A common summer-resident throughout New England.) 

 (a). About five inches long. ^ olive-green above. Fore- 



