WESTERN YELLOW-THROAT. 



{Geothlypis trichas occidentalis.) 



The birds are here, for all the season's late. 

 They take the sun's height, an' don' never wait; 

 Soon's he officially declares it's spring, 

 Their light hearts lift 'em on a north'ard wing, 

 An' th' aint an acre, fur ez you can hear, 

 Can't by the music tell the time o' year. 



-Lowell. 



THIS common, but beautiful res- 

 ident of the western United 

 States begins to arrive about 

 the middle of April and leaves 

 during the month of September. It is 

 one of the most conspicuous of the 

 warbler family, is very numerous and 

 familiar, and is decked with such a 

 marked plumage that it cannot fail to 

 be noticed. The adult male is olive- 

 green above, becoming browner on the 

 nape. The female is duller in color 

 than the male without black, gray, or 

 white on head, which is mostly dull 

 brownish. The yellow of throat is 

 much duller than in the male. The 

 young are somewhat like the adult fe- 

 male. This is said to be the prevailing 

 form in Illinois and Indiana, the larger 

 number of specimens having the more 

 extensively yellow lower parts of the 

 western form, though there is much 

 variation. 



This little fellow is found among the 

 briars or weed-stalks, in rose bushes 

 and brambles, where it sings through- 

 out the day. Its nest, generally built 

 between upright weed-stalks or coarse 

 grass in damp meadow land, is shaped 

 like a cup, the opening at the top. The 

 eggs vary from four to six, and are of a 

 delicate pinkish-white, the larger end 

 marked by a ring of specks and lines 

 of different shades of brown. The 

 western yellow-throat inhabits the Mis- 

 sissippi valley to the Pacific coast. It 

 is found as far north as Manitoba; 

 south in winter from the southern 



United States, through central and 

 western Mexico to Guatemala. With 

 a few exceptions the warblers are mi- 

 gratory birds, the majority of them 

 passing rapidly across the United States 

 in the spring on the way to the north- 

 ern breeding-grounds. It is for this 

 reason that they are known to few ex- 

 cept the close observers of bird life, 

 though in season they are known to 

 literally swarm where their insect food 

 is most plentiful — "always where the 

 green leaves are, whether in lofty tree- 

 top, by an embowered coppice, or bud- 

 ding orchard. When the apple trees 

 bloom the warblers revel among the 

 flowers, vying in activity and numbers 

 with the bees; now probing the re- 

 cesses of a blossom for an insect which 

 has effected lodgment there, then dart- 

 ing to another, where, poised daintily 

 upon a slender twig, or suspended from 

 it, he explores, hastily, but carefully 

 for another morsel. Every movement 

 is the personification of nervous activ- 

 ity, as if the time for the journey was 

 short; and, indeed, such appears to be 

 the case, for two or three days, at most, 

 suffice some species in a single local- 

 ity; a day spent in gleaning through 

 the woods and orchards of one neigh- 

 borhood, with occasional brief sies- 

 tas among the leafy bowers, then the 

 following night in continuous flight 

 toward its northern destination, is prob- 

 ably the history of every individual of 

 the moving throng." 



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