BIRDS WITH UNMUSICAL VOICES. 123 



possess a strong whistleliJce quality which is at least 

 startling and amusing.* 



Burrough's interpretation of this bird's language 

 is " Teacher, teacher^" etc., crescendo, fortissimo. 

 This loud-voiced golden-crowned thrush has also a 

 fine melodic warble which he indulges in about the 

 time of sunset during the nesting season ; but his 

 summer note, the only one I know, is the far more 

 common qy^echer. 



The nest is usually built on the ground in the 

 woods ; in it one may find from three to four white 

 eggs marked with rust-color and brown on the larger 

 ends. 



The next bird with an unmusical note is the 

 Maryland yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas). This 

 modest little creature is scarcely more than five inches 

 long. His back, wings, and tail are dull olive-green ; 

 over the forehead and about the eyes is a broad band 

 of slate-black edged above by another band of white ; 

 the throat and breast are yellow and the legs silver- 

 white. 



The nest f is built in some secluded retreat among 



* I can not with satisfaction locate the tone ; I should say it 

 was a presto slur back and forth between the third E above and 

 the fourth B above middle C. 



f The nest is rarely found : but Burroughs describes his good 

 fortune in discovering it one day about six inches from the 

 ground, in a bunch of ferns. It was a massive nest built of the 



