MARYLAND YELLOW-THROAT 
(Geothlypis trichas and variety) 
Length, about 5% inches. Mostly green above, 
yellow below. Distinguished from other war- 
blers by broad black band across forehead, bor- 
dered narrowly with white. 
Range: Breeds from southern Canada to 
southern California, Texas, and Florida; win- 
ies from the southern United States to Costa 
ica. 
This little warbler is common throughout the 
Eastern and Southern States, frequenting 
thickets and low bushes on swampy ground. 
He is not a tree lover, but spends most of his 
time on or very near the ground, where he 
hunts assiduously for caterpillars, beetles, and 
various other small insects. Among the pests 
that he devours are the western cucumber 
beetle and the black olive scale. He has a 
cheery song of which he is not a bit ashamed, 
and when one happens to be near the particu- 
lar thicket a pair of yellow-throats have chosen 
for their own,-one has not long to wait for 
vocal proof that the male, at least, is at home. 
The yellow-throat has the bump of curiosity 
well developed, and if you desire a close ac- 
quaintance with a pair you have only to 
“squeak” a few times, when you will have the 
pleasure of seeing at least one of the couple 
venture out from the retreat far enough to 
make sure of the character of the visitor. 
YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT (Icteria 
virens and subspecies) 
Length, about 7% inches. Its size, olive- 
green upper parts, and bright yellow throat, 
breast, and upper belly distinguish this bird at 
a glance. 
Range: Breeds from British Columbia, Mon- 
tana, Wisconsin, Ontario, and southern New 
England south to the Gulf States and Mexico; 
winters from Mexico to Costa Rica. 
The chat is one of our largest and most 
notable warblers. It is a frequenter of brushy 
thickets and swampy new growth, and, while 
not averse to showing itself, relies more upon 
its voice to announce its presence than upon 
its green and yellow plumage. Not infre- 
quently the chat sings during the night. The 
song, for song we must call it, is an odd jumble 
of chucks and whistles, which is likely to bring 
to mind the quip current in the West, “Don’t 
shoot the musician; he is doing his best.” In 
this same charitable spirit we must accept the 
song of the chat at the bird’s own valuation, 
which, we may be sure, is not low. Its nest is 
a rather bulky structure of grasses, leaves, and 
strips of bark, and is often so conspicuously 
placed in a low bush as to cause one to wonder 
how it ever escapes the notice of marauders 
fond of birds’ eggs and nestlings. 
The chat does no harm to agricultural in- 
terests, but, on the contrary, like most of the 
warbler family, lives largely on insects, and 
among them are many weevils, including the 
alfalfa weevil and the boll weevil so destruc- 
tive to cotton. 
(See Biol. Surv. Bull. 17, p. 18 et seq.; also 
Circular 64, p. 5.) 
80 
OVEN-BIRD (Seiurus aurocapillus) 
Length, a little over 6 inches. Above mostly 
olive green; below white, breast and sides 
streaked with black. ; 
Range: Breeds from southern Mackenzie, 
Ontario, southern Labrador, and Newfoundland 
south to Wyoming, Kansas, southern Missouri, 
Ohio Valley, and Virginia; also in mountains 
of Georgia and South Carolina; winters in 
southern Florida, southern Louisiana, Bahamas, 
West Indies, and southern Mexico to Colombia. 
The oven-bird is one of our best-known 
birds and one the woodland stroller is sure to 
get acquainted with, whether he will or no, so 
common is it and so generally distributed. In 
moments of ecstacy it has a flight song which 
has been highly extolled, but this is only for 
the initiated; its insistent repetition of “teacher, 
teacher, teacher,” as Burroughs happily phrases 
it, is all the bird vouchsafes for the ears of 
ordinary mortals. Its curious domed-over 
grass nest is placed on the ground and is not 
hard to find. The food of the oven-bird does 
not differ greatly from that of other warblers, 
notwithstanding the fact that the bird is strictly 
terrestrial in habits. It consists almost exclu- 
sively of insects, including ants, beetles, moths, 
span worms, and other caterpillars, with a few 
spiders, millepods, and weevils. 
(See Biol. Surv. Bull. 17; also yearbook for 
1900, p. 416.) 
RED-FACED WARBLER (Cardellina 
rubrifrons) 
Range: Mainly in Transition Zone in moun- 
tains of southern Arizona and southwestern 
New Mexico and south through Mexico to the 
highlands of Guatemala. 
So differently colored from our own North 
American warblers generally is the little red- 
face that one might at once suspect it to be a 
stranger from a strange land. So at least it 
seemed to me when, in the mountains near 
Apache, Arizona, in July, 1874, I saw the first 
one ever detected within our borders. Later in 
the same year I found others on Mount Graham. 
It is a Mexican species which has obtained a 
foothold along our southern borders in Arizona 
and New Mexico. As I noted at the time, I 
saw flocks of ten or fifteen among the pines 
and spruces, the birds frequenting these trees 
almost exclusively, only rarely being seen on 
the bushes that fringed the stream. In habits 
red-faced warblers are a rather strange com- 
pound, now resembling the common warblers, 
again recalling the redstart, but more often, 
perhaps, bringing to mind the less graceful 
motions of the familiar titmice. Their favorite 
hunting places appear to be the extremities of 
the limbs of spruces, over the branches of 
which they quickly pass, with a peculiar and 
constant sidewise jerk of the tail. Since 1874 
other observers have had a better chance to 
study the bird and a number of nests have been 
taken. These were under tufts of grass, and 
in the case of one found by Price was “such a 
poor attempt at nest-building and made of 
such loose material that it crumbled to frag- 
ments on being removed.” 
