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MARYLAND YELLOW-THROAT 



Fall Migration. 



The Bird and Its Haunts. The Yellow-throat, for a Warbler, is 

 possessed of unusual individuality. This is due not only to its mode of 

 life and peculiar markings, but more particularly to its responsiveness. 

 The tree-top Warblers pass us by without so much as a chirp of 

 recognition, but the Yellow-throat is evidently interested in us; his 

 notes are interrogative and so clearly occasioned by our presence that 

 they seem to be actually addressed to us. With nervous animation the 

 bird hops here and there, appearing and disappearing, its bright eyes 

 shining through its black mask, its personality so distinct, that one 

 is tempted to believe it a feather-clad sprite of the bushes. The bird, 

 however, is far from being confined to bushy tracts, wet or dry, in the 

 woods or out, but is distinctly partial to cat-tail meadows, a trait far 

 more pronounced in its western relatives. 



It is difficult to believe that this haunter of thickets mounts high 

 in the sky to pursue its air-line flight to or from its summer home, 

 but the large number of Yellow-throats included among the victims of 

 lighthouses show that, like other retiring birds, it is a night migrant. 



At Berwyn, Pa., F. L. Burns (MS.) writes that the Yellow-throat 

 is "a common summer inhabitant of the open swampy thickets, damp 

 woods, and to a lesser degree, the borders of the dense upland second 

 growth. It is more often met with in the upland clearings during 

 August and September, than earlier in the season. 



"Incubation seems to be performed by the female alone. I have 

 found her on the nest at almost all hours of the day. When flushed 

 she seems very timid and usually keeps well hidden. Often she flies 

 from the nest with whirring wings and always dives into the under- 



