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 m . „ v „. ^ 



o * Fig. 61. — Northern lellow- 



in a tree or rises in air, but ordinarily throat, two-thirds natural 

 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, 

 skh'-a-iciygle, sich'-a-iriggle, sich'-a-n;iggle, or in some cases 

 witchery, icitchery, icitchery. 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 lays 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 



