454 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



from one weed or low bush to another, peering about in all sorts of crannies 

 for caterpillars and other small insects. 



The call note is a sharp chick or chack, sometimes changing to chit 

 or quit. It also utters a variety of jarring, chattering notes almost sug- 

 gestive of the scolding of a wren, sometimes a little long-drawn snarl, 

 as Thayer calls it, a wrenlike " b-r-r-r-r-r." Its song is a full- voiced per- 

 formance but rather irregular in form. The commonest form has usually 

 been written " wichity, wichity, wichity," or " rapity, rapity, rapity." This 



song is almost endlessly varied, 

 but is a curious ringing whistle 

 which will certainly be sug- 

 gested by these attempts to 

 syllabize the ditty. 



The nest is usually placed 

 on the ground or near it, among 

 thick bushes or weeds, some- 

 times in a tussock of marsh 

 grass, sometimes in a low bush 

 or in a tangle of briers. It is 

 rather bulky in construction, 

 composed of dead leaves, coarse 

 grasses and strips of bark, lined 

 with finer grasses, tendrils and 

 Photo by L. s. Horton rootlets, sometimes a few long 



Maryland \-elluw-throat on nest 



hairs. The eggs are 3 to 5 in 

 number, usually 4, of a shiny white ground color, speckled, spotted and 

 blotched with reddish brown, purplish black, umber and a few spots of 

 lilac. Sometimes the markings are in long pen lines and forming a wreath 

 near the larger end. The average size is .72 by .54 inches. Nesting 

 dates in western New York and on Long Island vary from May 24 to 31, 

 fresh sets being found as late as June 12. Occasionally nests with fresh eggs 

 are found as late as the 4th to the loth of July, possibly representing a 



