MARYLAND YELLOW-THROAT. 59 
MARYLAND YELLOW-THROAT.— SYLVIA 
MARILANDICA. — Fre. 19. 
Turdus trichas, Linn. Syst. i. 293. — Edw. 237.— Yellow-breasted Warbler, Arct. 
Zool. ii, No. 283. Id. 284,—Le Figuier aux joues noires, De Buff. v. 292. — La 
Fauvette 4 poitrine jaune de la Louisiane, Buff. v. 162. Pl. enl. 709, fig. 2. — 
Lath. Syn. iv. 433, 32.— Peale’s Museum, No. 6902. : 
TRICHUS PERSONATUS, —Swainson.* 
Trichas personatus, Swain. Zool. Journ. No. 10, p. 167.— The Yellow-breasted 
Warbler, or Maryland Yellow-Throat, Awd. i. pl. 23, p. 121. 
Tus is one of the humble inhabitants of briers, brambles, alder 
bushes, and such shrubbery as grows most luxuriantly in low, watery 
situations; and might with propriety be denominated Humility, its 
business or ambition seldom leading it higher than the tops of the un- 
derwood. Insects and their larve are its usual food. It dives into the 
deepest of the thicket, rambles among the roots, searches round the 
stems, examines both sides of the leaf, raising itself on its legs, so as to 
peep into every crevice ; amusing itself at times with a very simple, 
‘and not disagreeable, song or twitter, whilititee, whitititee, whitititee ; 
pausing for half a minute or so, and then repeating its notes as before. 
It inhabits the whole United States from Maine to Florida, and also 
Louisiana; and is particularly numerous in the low, swampy thickets 
of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and’ New Jersey. It is by no means shy; 
but seems deliberate and unsuspicious, as if the places it frequented, 
or its own diminutiveness, were its sufficient security. It often visits 
the fields of growing rye, wheat, barley, é&c., and no doubt performs 
the part of a friend to the farmer, in ridding the stalks of vermin, that 
might otherwise lay waste his fields. It seldom approaches the farm- 
house, or city; but lives in obscurity and peace, amidst its favorite 
* Mr. Swainson has formed from this species his genus T'richas, and bestowed 
upon it the new and appropriate name of personatus, or masked ; Marilandica of 
Brisson and: Wilson could scarcely be retained, Trichas of Linneus having the ~~: 
priority. ‘I'he latter is now converted into a generic term ; and as the species does 
not seem entirely confined to Maryland, another and more appropriate than either 
will perhaps make less confusion than the attempts to restore some old one. Mr. 
Swainson makes the following remarks upon the genus :—‘‘ This form is intimately 
ec ted with Synalaxis, and two or three other groups peculiar to Africa and 
Australia. Feebleness of flight and strength of foot separate these birds from the 
typical genera; while the strength and curvature of the hind claw forbid us to as- 
sociate them with the true Motacillm.” 
The female is figured on No. 86, of this volume, where it is mentioned as one of 
the birds whose nest the Cow Bunting selects to deposit her eggs in. “The nest,” 
according to Mr. Audubon, “ is placed on the ground, and partly sunk in it: it is 
now and then covered over in the form of an oven, from which circumstance, chil- 
dren name this warbler the Oven-bird. It is composed externally of withered 
leaves and grass, and is lined with hair. The eggs are from four to six, of a white 
color, speckled with light brown, and are deposited about the middle of May. 
Sometimes two broods are reared in a season. I have never observed the egg of 
the Cow Bunting in the nests of the second brood.” 
The male birds do not attain their full plumage until the second spring. — Ep. 
