SONG BIRDS OF ORCHARD AND WOODLAND. 199 



One day, as I stopped to drink at a spring in tlic woods, a 

 beantiful male Black-throated Green War])ler shot down from 

 a tall tree and alighted on a moss-grown rock that bordered 

 the diminutive pool. Evidently he had not expected me, but 

 was not at all afraid. He looked up at me iniiuiringly for a 

 moment, and then, stepping into the 

 shallow water, dipped his head and 

 threw the drops in showers as he 

 shook out his brilliant })Iumage 

 in the bath. His ablutions 

 finished, quite within reach 

 of ni}^ hand, he mounted again 

 to the tree top, and sent back his drowsy 



song. Fig. 67.— Bl.-ick-tliroated 



■ This bird has several chirps which it ^■■'^^'^^" wan.ier, natumi 



^ ^ size. 



utters to express different emotions, but 

 its sonof is most charminij, haruionizino- as it does, with the 

 whispering of the pines to the summer wind. It has a zeeing 

 sound. Hoffman gives it as see, zee, zu, zi. This is given 

 with a little of the (luality which characterizes the song of the 

 harvest cicada, and often with a difference in the pitch of the 

 first and last syllables. John Burroughs graphically repre- 

 sents the notes thus : ^ . The upper lines signify 



the higher tones. Bradford Torrey translates the song as 

 ''Trees, trees, nmrmuring trees ; " but a more practical writer 

 assures us that the bird calls for " Cheese, cheese, a little 

 more cheese." It has at least one other song of the same 

 character, but longer and perhaps a trifle more varied. This 

 is usually considered to be its entire repertoit-e ; but no one 

 can ever be (juite sure that he knows all the notes of any 

 bird. In the fall of 1905 I heard in a small birch tree in 

 Concord a song that resembled closely the lay of a Warbling 

 Vireo. In fact, I mistook it for the song of that ])ir(l; but 

 in trjdng to find the singer I soon learned that there was 

 no Vireo in the tree, and that the song came from a young 

 male Black-throated Green Warbler, which repeated it sev- 

 eral times before my eyes. 



Mr. C. A. Reed says he believes that when its nest is in 

 danger of discovery this Warl)ler sometimes brings straws 



