SONG BIRDS OF ORCHARD AND WOODLAND. 187 
in the woods. While it feeds somewhat in trees, its habit, 
like that of other Warblers of the genus, is to keep near the 
ground and in shrubbery ; hence it is often seen along bushy 
roadsides, particularly where the road crosses a swamp or 
stream. It usually keeps close to the underbrush, peering 
out from between leaves and stems, 
and occasionally taking short flights 
near the ground. 
It greets all comers with a sharp 
chirp, or voices its alarm in a rat- 
tling, Wren-like chatter. In singing 
it sometimes mounts to a high perch 
Fig. 61.—Northern Yellow- 
in a tree or rises in air, but ordinarily — throat, two-thirds natural 
: . : : : size. 
delivers its song while pursuing its 
usual avocations among the shrubbery. The song is a 
series of phrases, with the accent on the first syllable, thus, 
stch'-a-wiggle, sich'-a-wiggle, sich'-a-wiggle, or in some cases 
witchery, witchery, witchery. It is much varied in length 
and expression, but usually may be known by the repeti- 
tion of the strongly accented syllable. Like many other 
Warblers, this bird has three or more variations to its strain, 
but with perhaps one exception they are all unmistakable. 
The Yellow-throat usually arrives at its chosen haunts in 
Massachusetts early in May. It often Jays two sets of eggs, 
and two broods are sometimes reared. In the fall flights 
the birds may be seen from time to time as they stop on 
their journey southward. One day you will find scarcely 
one; the next, the brooksides and river banks may be alive 
with them. ‘This bird is undoubtedly among the most use- 
ful species which in summer frequent our shrubbery, wood- 
lands, orchards, roadsides, and bushy pastures. In pastures 
the Yellow-throat eats many leaf hoppers, which are abun- 
dant among the grass and low-growing herbage that it fre- 
quents. Prof. Herbert Osborn has shown that on an acre of 
pasture land there frequently exist a million leaf hoppers, 
which consume, perhaps unnoticed, as much grass as a cow, 
if not more. The Yellow-throat, on account of its destruc- 
tion of leaf hoppers and grasshoppers, may be ranked among 
the useful birds of the fields. In orchards it often feeds very 
