74 



Bird-Land Echoes. 



of very different habits the summer through, is the 

 ever-abundant and ever-dehghtful Maryland yellow- 

 throat. Many a long year ago, when my only teacher 

 as regards the out-door world was an old farm-hand 

 to whom I always applied for information and have 

 found since was seldom led astray, I asked about 

 this little bird, and he told me that it was the 

 " black-cheeked wren," and for years, 

 until Audubon's seven volumes came to 

 hand, I called it such. It is quite as good 

 a name as the one given in the books. 

 Why ''Maryland" should be tacked on 

 to the popular name is i 

 dent. Scarcely one of tl 

 graphical terms used in po 

 ular nomenclature but is 

 downright absurd- 

 ity. To bring about 

 their disuse would 

 be a better occupa- 

 tion for the bird- 

 men than the intro- 

 duction of the jaw- 

 breaking trinomial- 

 isms with which they lumber the pages of their lists, 

 catalogues, and hand-books. This warbler, then, with 

 its black cheeks and yellow throat and Quaker-brown 

 back, is a lover of the lowlands, of the edges of 

 swamps, and of those remaining traces of Edenic 

 gardens, the meadows. It demands, or at least asks 

 for, the rank growths that heat and moisture bring 



Maryland Yellow-throat. 



