556 BULLETIN 203, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



throat. We were wondering if it had been listening to swamp spar- 

 rows and had copied them. In 1936 a simihir case occurred, when 

 we heard what we took to be a short-billed marsh wren singing, only 

 to find that it was the yellowthroat again. I guess we would have all 

 put it down for a wren without thinking a second time, but one of the 

 party took the trouble to look it up. On May 14, 1937 we heard what 

 was without doubt the same bird singing the same wren song from 

 the same location. Here are two instances of a marsh bird whose 

 song imitated very closely the songs of two other marsh birds, the 

 normal songs of the three species being about as unlike as it is possible 

 to get them." 



H. Mousley (1919) has determined that the "singing tree," or the 

 place selected by the male for singing, was near the nest ; in five nests 

 the distance varied from only 7 to 11 yards. He found this informa- 

 tion useful in locating the nests. 



H. W. Wright (1912) found that the awakening song of the Mary- 

 land yellowthroat at Jefferson Highland, in the Wliite Mountains of 

 New Hampshire, begins on an average at 3 : 51 a.m. but varied from 

 8 : 41 to 3 : 55 a.m. 



The yellowthroat in its haunts is generally well concealed from 

 view, and since it is readily excited and disturbed by our approach, 

 the first indication to us of his presence is a sharp tchch^ Schick, or 

 chit note which is excitedly uttered as he hops nervously about in the 

 thicket closely scrutinizing our movements to determine whether we 

 are friend or foe. At other times he may be heard to utter a slight 

 chip or tip note. 



In addition to the ordinary, or territory, song the yellowthroat has 

 a so-called flight song which is more generally heard late in the season 

 after the birds have begun nesting. The flight song is not so highly 

 developed in the yellowthroat as it is in the true flight singers of the 

 open grass areas, nor is it as spectacular as the performance of two 

 other warblers, the ovenbird and the yellow-breasted chat. The flight 

 song of the yellowthroat is merely an outburst of ecstasy consisting 

 of short, confused, and sputtering notes, but generally including 

 phrases of the common song. It is uttered as it gracefully flies up 

 from the ground to a height of 15 to 20 feet. The song ends while 

 the bird is at its highest point of the flight. He then silently drops to 

 the place from which it started. The flight song is more often heard 

 in the late afternoon or toward evening than it is during the early 

 part of the day. 



E. H. Forbush (1929) presents an account of a flight song of the 

 yellowthroat, which was most unusual for the height at which the 

 bird flew during the performance, as follows : 



There is an occasional song-flight that goes far beyond the ordinary. I recall 

 but one high-flyer, and probably a high flight is very unusual. One such is de- 



