554 BULLETIN 203, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The "worms" were the usual miscellaneous assortment, mostly with a greenish 

 color. These were, of course, gleaned from the foliage. The number of spiders 

 taken by these birds was an interesting fact. * * * Sometimes the food 

 morsel was large, and the time required by the young in swallowing made identi- 

 fication possible. At other times the food was small and the feeding process 

 was so rapid that identification was impossible. Much of the small stuff may 

 have consisted of plant lice, etc. 



Voice. — The northern yellowthroat may be heard in full song soon 

 after the arrival of the males in spring. Although the song is subject 

 to great individualistic and local variations its chai-acteristic rhythm 

 and the loud, clear, and strongly accented syllables make it distinctive 

 and easily identifiable. But while the song of the yellowthroat lends 

 itself readily to syllabification, few interpreters agree as to what the 

 bird seems to say. It utterances have been rendered as: / beseech 

 you, I beseech you, I beseech you; loitchity, wichity, loichity ; loitch-a- 

 wee-o, witch-a-wee-o, vjitch-a-ioee-o ; peachity, yeachity, 'peachity, etc. 

 Witmer Stone (1937) in his study of the Maryland yellowthroat at 

 Cape May, N. J., emphasizes the idividual variation of the song. 

 He states that no two appeared alike, although each carries a similar 

 phrase that is characteristic and gives to all songs an impression of 

 identity. He offers 13 interpretations of songs he recorded and claims 

 that it was very easy to identify individual birds after their songs 

 were memorized. 



Aretas A. Saunders has given us his interpretation of the song as 

 follows : "The song of the yellowthroat consists of 3 or 4 repetitions of 

 a phrase of 2 to 6 notes, with 1 note of the phrase strongly accented. 

 The phrases vary greatly in different songs and individual birds. 

 Some phrases are very common, while others are comparatively rare. 

 3- or 4-note phrases are much commoner than others. In 106 records 

 of the song of this species, only 1 is of 2-note phrases; 7 are of 5 

 notes and 3 of 6. The remainder are almost equally divided between 

 3 and 4. In 5 of these records the phrase is sung only twice ; in 67 

 records three times, in 32 four times, and in 2 five times. 



"Probably the commonest phrase is one of three notes, the first 

 highest in pitch, and the last lowest; the first note the one usually 

 accented. This is commonly sung with three full phrases and the 

 first note of a fourth, wit' ato-wW ato-ioit' ato-wit. This is some- 

 times varied by making it a phrase of four notes, each lower in pitch 

 than the preceding one, making the phrase wee'titato. In the Al- 

 legany State Park this is the commonest yellowthroat song. Another 

 common song has the second note highest, and accented, witee'to^ and 

 this is varied by two notes on the same pitch before the accented note 

 titiway'to. There are many other variations, but they seem to be 

 less common than these. In all these, however, the song is readily 



