MARYLAND YELLOW-THROAT. 257 
solicitude until it is discovered: Then they will make the most vehement demonstrations 
of alarm and distress, flying about the intruder and fearlessly approaching him to 
within a few feet.”” (Brewer.) In the North they rarely, if ever, have more than one 
brood in the season. The eggs, four to five in number, are white or creamy-white, 
speckled, chiefly at the larger end, with reddish-brown, lilac, and black. The family, 
after the young have left the nest, and even after they are able to take care of them- 
selves, keep together. In July I frequently observed large numbers of old and young 
Yellow-throats on the borders of woods and swamps, in secluded thickets, and other 
retired places, where they were quietly searching for food on the ground. Late in August 
they leave Wisconsin and northern Illinois for their winter-quarters. 
The song of the Yellow-throat, which is heard most frequently from the time of its 
arrival till the young are hatched, consists of a few very mellow notes, sounding like 
witchity,-witchity,-witchity. This lively and agreeable refrain is uttered from the top 
of a small shrub, or among the brambles, and is heard throughout the day, but most 
frequently early in the morning and again when the twilight of the evening falls. At 
times the song displays a marked difference, and occasionally closely resembles the strain 
of the Chestnut-sided and Summer Yellowbird. 
Of this species there are two distinct varieties. The true species, the common 
Maryland Yellow-throat, is mainly found east of the Alleghanies, north to Ontario and 
Nova Scotia, breeding from Georgia northward. This bird winters in the South Atlantic 
and Gulf States, and the West Indies. The variety, known as the WESTERN YELLOW- 
THROAT, Geothlypis trichas occidentalis BREWSTER, is distributed over the Western States, 
from the Mississippi valley to the Pacific, and during summer from south-eastern Texas 
to the Northern States and probably to Manitoba. In their habits both birds show no 
difference. The Western Yellow-throat is the variety I have observed since my childhood 
and which I have described in the foregoing pages. Dr. J. C. Merrill, who found this 
bird very common in the region of Fort Klamath, Oregon, states that its favorite haunt 
there is among the tules in company with Marsh Wrens and Yellow-headed Blackbirds. 
I have also found the bird in marshy localities on the Rock River in Wisconsin, where 
rank grasses, sedges, lobelias, ferns, turtle-heads, and such shrubs as the red-osier, 
willows, and others grow in great luxuriance. 
BELDING’s YELLOW-THROAT, Geothlypis beldingi Ripcwayvy, inhabits Lower California. 
NAMES: MaryLanp YELLow-THROAT, Yellow-throat, Western Yellow-throat, Ground Warbler, Black-masked 
Ground Warbler, Black-cheeked Yellow-throat, Brier Wren, Yellow Brier Wren. 
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Tuardus trichas Linn. (1766). Sylvia trichas Lath. (1790). GEOTHLYPIS 
TRICHAS Caxanis (1850). Sylvia marilandica Wils. (1808). Trichas marilandica Nutt. (1840). 
Sylvia roscoe Aud. (1840). 
DESCRIPTION: ‘Male, Adult: Above, olive-green; rather grayer anteriorly and brighter on rump; forehead 
and broad band on side of head, pure black; bordered above by hoary-ash; under-parts, including 
under wing-coverts and edge of wing, rich yellow, fading to whitish on the belly; wings and tail, 
dusky, unmarked, glossed with olive-green; bill, black; feet, flesh-color. Female: Without the black 
and ash on the head; the crown, quite brownish; an obscure supraciliary line, and the yellow of the 
under-parts, pale and restricted; smaller than the male. 
“Length, 4.75 to 5.00 inches; wing and tail, each, 1.90 to 2.10 inches.” (Coues.) 
33 
