AMEurCAX WARBLERS. ^()7 



i^evoral species of Yellow-t'iioats wliieh occur on the Baha- 

 mas are all. without exce]jtk)]i, inhabitants of inoi-eor less thick 

 jungles which grow on high land, we can better understand 

 this winter ha))it of our 8])ecies, They merely return to n 

 pj'imitive ha])it of the form fi'om which they originated wheu- 

 I'ver they visit theii" ancestral home. 



Bkkedixc; Hauits. The Yellow-throats place their nests 

 on or near the ground in their favorite thicket or near it. 

 vSometimes it is built in a tussock of sedge, or it may be 

 placed in a sheliei-iug fern, or among low herbage, but where- 

 ever it may be it is usually carefully cojicealed, and hence 

 difficult to find. 



Nest building begins about the middle of May, and the 

 eggs are deposited by June i. The newly fledged young may 

 be seen following their parents the first week in July, and af- 

 ter the nestlings are old enough to care for themselves the 

 family remains together until the species migrates. 



Song. The ordinary notes of the Yellow-throat are well 

 Icnown, being very characteristic and are thus easily recog- 

 nized. These notes may be expressed by the syllables, "-rjich- 

 iry ivichity -vichity '". Sometimes it is, " witchity -vichity 

 -witch ", and often the song is shortened by the omission of 

 a note. The song is given quite deliberately and in about the 

 same tone from first to last, and in this way differs from the 

 call song of the Ovenbird which is suggested by it. Both of 

 the songs begin abruptly, and both are so loud as to attract 

 the attention of even a casual observer, but instead of being 

 deliberately uttered and in having the same tone throughout, 

 as in the Yellow-throaty the Ovenbird gives its lay with increas- 

 ing rapidity and volume as it proceeds. Both songs are call 

 songs, and the Yellow-throat, like the Ovenbird, gives its true 

 song rather rarely and always while hovering. The bird rises 

 from its favorite thicket, flies obliquely upward to the height 



