86 LAND-BIRDS. 



This is varied to wee-chee-chee-wee, which is repeated in the 

 same manner, and again to a song, which is not unlike that of 

 the Yellow Warbler, though sufficiently distinct. 



The Maryland " Yellow-throats " are among our most bene- 

 ficial birds, and cannot in any way do injury to man or his 

 property. Whoever is unfamiliar with them can easily make 

 their acquaintance, and a charming acquaintance it will prove 

 to be. In a certain place, where I took many walks, these 

 birds seemed to be traveling companions, whenever I followed 

 the highways, so constantly did I see them along the road- 

 sides. 



B. PHILADELPHIA. Mourning Warbler. Quite com- 

 mon (locally) in certain parts of northern New England as a 

 summer resident, but a very rare migrant through Massachu- 

 setts, where none pass the summer, so far as I know.* 



a. Five inches or more long. Olive above. Beneath, 

 bright yellow. Head, warm (ashy) gray. Throat, black, often 

 waved with gray. 



b. The eggs and nest correspond closely to those of the 

 Maryland Yellow-throat in every respect, but the eggs, so far 

 as I know, are never either plain white or coarsely marked. 



c. The Mourning Warblers are among the birds who are 

 extremely rare in Massachusetts, even during the migrations, 

 though they breed quite commonly in certain parts of northern 

 New England, and also in places much further to the south- 

 ward. During their occasional brief sojourn in this State, in 

 the latter part of May, and still more rarely in September, 

 they usually frequent the haunts of the Maryland Yellow- 

 throats, but are also sometimes seen examining the foliage of 

 tall trees (up the trunks of which, for a little way, I have 

 strong reason to believe that they sometimes scramble). I 

 invariably see in spring a few pairs in the " scrub," especially 

 where swampy. In their summer homes they inhabit copses 



* A not uncommon but rather lo- lock in western Massachusetts, but else- 



cally distributed summer resident of where in southern New England known 



northern New England, breeding also only as a rare spring and still rarer au- 



in positive abundance on Mount Gray- tumn migrant. W. B. 



