GOLDEN YELLOWTHROAT 577 



will flit nervously about in the underbrush, often fearlessly approaching within 

 a few yards of the observer. 



The young when hatched are naked, but gradually become sparsely covered 

 with light down. Feeding, which is participated in by both parents, takes 

 place at short intervals during the greater part of the day, until the young are 

 ready to leave the nest. So far as I have been able to observe, the parent birds 

 appear to entice the ambitious nestlings into the tule and willow thickets away 

 from the open flats where they may have been hatched. This is probably in 

 order to afford them the shelter of the branches and, by removing them some 

 little distance from the ground, to protect them against small predatory 

 mammals. 



[Author's Note : The measurements of 28 eggs average 17.1 by 13.2 

 millimeters ; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 18.5 by 13.5, 

 18.2 by 13.8, 15.9 by 12.9, and 16.3 by 12.4 millimeters.] 



Voice. — G. W. Schussler (1918) states that in the winter the salt- 

 marsh yellowthroats are in the seclusion of the high tules standing in 

 deep water. At this season the birds flit out of sight in advance of 

 one's approach, uttering their solitary chack of protest and suspicion. 

 With the approach of spring they leave the tules to make incursions 

 into the shorter grasses and among the willows. At this period Mr. 

 Schussler has heard them utter a short grating call resembling 

 k-r-r-r-r-r in addition to their familiar chack. He writes of the song 

 as follows : 



It is usually not until some warm, sunny morning in late February that the 

 clear ringing wreecJi-ity wreech-ity, wreech-ity, wreech-ity of the male is heard. 

 The song varies considerably with the season and individual, those in early 

 spring often sounding sadly out of tune, a^d some are even rendered in a con- 

 densed form of two syllables ; but the power of it rises rapidly as the year ad- 

 vances until by the end of March its nuptial gladness pours forth in full-throated 

 volume. Sometimes as evening approaches, one of the little black-faced birds 

 will leap into the air with fluttering wings and expanded tail and as it slowly 

 tumbles down into the grass again, will execute an exquisite series of melodious 

 runs and trills not unlike the vocal accomplishments of the chat. 



In September the summer songs of the males have ceased and a great diminu- 

 tion in their numbers is noticeable. By November, sinuosa has again largely 

 retired to the tule jungle and with his added winter air of distrust is once more 

 the shy flitting figure of the December marshlands. 



GEOTHLYPIS TRICHAS CHRYSEOLA Van Rossem 

 GOLDEN YELLOWTHROAT 



Contributed by Alfred Otto Gross 

 HABITS 



The golden yellowthroat was described from a breeding adult male, 

 taken June 12, 1929 at Saric, north-central Sonora, Mexico, by A. J. 

 Van Rossem (1930), who says of its subspecific characters: "Com- 

 pared with Geothlypis trichas scirpicola, both sexes are brighter and 



