418 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



on " pea-pea-pea " and gradually more and more of their song 

 is whistled until finally the northern Maine woods ring with 

 "pea-pea-pea-all-day-long-sow-your-pea-sow-your-pea-sow-your- 

 pea " or at least that is what the Maine farmers translate the 

 plaintive whistled song as saying. Another song slightly 

 different may be worded as " the-same-old-song-peabody-pea- 

 body-peabody." In the bushy thickets, brushy pastures and 

 open woods of Maine in the inhabited regions, and in the 

 most lonesome solitudes of the backwoods all through spring 

 and early summer this sweet, plaintive melody is poured forth. 

 The singer perches in the bushes or on the ground. They are 

 largely terrestrial in habits, preferring the ground and low 

 bushes, and rarely going far up in trees. 



The nests are composed invariably of grass and mosses, lined 

 with finer grasses and sedges and occasionally with a few 

 feathers. They are placed on the ground, either at foot of a 

 small bush, on a hummock in a bushy pasture or in the open 

 or dense woods, or under a brush pile in the woods or clear- 

 ings. Nest building begins about May tenth and about a 

 week is needed to complete a nest, the female only doing the 

 work. An egg is laid each day until the set of four or five is 

 completed. Incubation requires twelve to fourteen days 

 according to weather and other factors and the young leave 

 the nest in fourteen days more. The eggs of the first brood 

 hatch about June eighth and the young are ready to leave the 

 nest by the twenty-second. A second brood is then reared in 

 many instances. The male bird does not seem to either incu- 

 bate or help to build but he does feed the young and seems to 

 assume charge of them while the second litter is being 

 incubated. ' Both birds are very solicitous, and if an intruder 

 appears the female slips quietly ofi the nest, sneaks a short 

 distance off and then begins to utter a series of " chips " and 

 " tseeps " designed to draw attention to her. The male joins 

 in the outcry, and shortly other neighbors of the same species 

 also appear to aid in the tumult. 



