138 



BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER 



note decidedly higher pitched and also louder. This is the commonest 

 of the four songs in the breeding season near Monadnock. The fourth 

 song begins with a long string of short, hurried notes, like Hi-hi-hi-hi- 

 hi-hi-hi culminating at last in the high-pitched, long-drawn wheeee. 

 All four songs, — and, as far as my experience goes, the many varia- 

 tions from them and between them, have, either throughout or in 

 part, the tell-tale tone-quality of huskiness or beadiness in a full- 

 strength Warbler- voice ; — an almost peculiar characteristic of the 

 Black-throated Blue's. In addition to some rather non-committal small 

 call-notes, it has some that are peculiarly its own. The queerest of 

 these I have heard from the male only. It is a weak, insect-like, 

 grating, but low-toned Bzzz bsss hszz bzsz bzzz several times repeated 

 in pretty quick succession ; — an utterance which, if it came from any 

 other Warbler, might be taken for a song, but so totally unlike all the 

 Black-throated Blue's unmistakably sung performances, that it cannot 

 be more than a call-note or complaint." (Thayer, MS.) 



Miss Paddock sends three notations and writes : "This song is 

 hard to express in musical notation. It is an insect-like buzzing note 

 repeated three or four times with a rising inflection. It sounds a little 

 like the breath sucked through the teeth ; or like one note of the Black- 

 throated Green's song." 







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Nesting Site. — Nests found by Jones^ at Eastford, Connecticut, 

 were in laurel not over eighteen inches up, while, in northern New 

 York, Bagg' found the species nesting in little maples at about one 

 foot from the ground. Nests found by Burtch (MS.) at Branch- 

 port, New York, were built in birch saplings eighteen and twenty 

 inches from the ground, and in a blackberry bush fourteen inches 

 from the ground. Near Utica, New York, Egbert Bagg writes 

 that: "the nest is placed in an upright fork of some shrub, quite near 

 the ground, from a foot to three feet from it. The female sits close 

 and allows an observer every opportunity to identify her. The 

 male generally appears, especially if the female leaves the nest, but 

 seems not to be greatly troubled by his callers." 



