NORTHERN AND MARYLAND YELLOWTHROATS 545 



Nestmg. — Unlike many of our warblers, the yellowtliroat does not 

 nest in the interior of our dense forests and is seldom seen in the 

 upper branches of tall trees, being more or less restricted to low 

 growths of vegetation. However, it is not strictly terrestrial in its 

 habits, as in the ovenbird. It is partial to wet situations but these need 

 not be great in extent. While it may be found on the borders of large 

 marshes and especially on little islands in marshes and swamps it is 

 also met with near springs and small brooks. An extreme wet situ- 

 ation for a nesting site of the Maryland yellowtliroat is described by 

 W. I. Whitehill (1897) as follows : "While collecting in a large slough 

 in Jackson County, Minnesota, on June 9, 1897, amid the green rushes 

 where Long- and Short-billed Marsh Wrens were breeding, I ran 

 across a pair of Yellow-throats * * * jj^ some high rushes in 

 about four feet of water, and upon investigating I found the nest 

 placed almost level with the water in a thick clump of cat-tails, over 

 fifty feet from shore, and right in the midst of a colony of Marsh 

 Wrens." 



Often individuals take up their residence in dry upland situations 

 remote from water. They may be found along old fence rows grown 

 up with weeds and tangles of briers and shrubbery, in huckleberry or 

 raspberry or blackberry patches, and along the margins of woodlands 

 and neglected country roadsides. Maurice Brooks (1940) reports that 

 in the central Allegheny Mountain region where the spruces have been 

 cut, the northern yellowthroats have invaded the highest mountains 

 and are now abundant at all altitudes. 



I have found it a very common nesting bird on many of the small 

 outer islands off the coast of Maine. Some of these islands are with- 

 out any source of fresh water and the only apparent attraction is a 

 growth of rank grass and weeds and briers, and the extreme isolation 

 from enemies, that such sites provide. For example, on Outer Green, 

 a tiny islet of a few acres, there is a bit of tall grass and weeds only a 

 few square yards in area, but it is sufficient to serve each year as the 

 home of a pair of northern yellowthroats. On some of the larger 

 islands where there is no fresh water other than rain I have seen as 

 many as four pairs, all of which apparently were nesting. 



The rest of the yellowtliroat is frequently placed on or a few inches 

 above the ground and is securely lodged in tussocks of grass, reeds, 

 cattails, briers, and sometimes in herbaceous plants such as skunk- 

 cabbage and similar vegetation. Quite often the grass in which the 

 nest is built is backed by a shrub or small tree. The nest is always well 

 concealed from view until the grass or shrubs are parted. This in 

 addition to the secretive habits of the birds makes the task of locating 

 the nest most difficult. All I have seen were accidently found by 

 flushing the bird from the nest when scouting through masses of vege- 

 tation in search of other birds. 



