256 NORTHERN YELLOW-THROAT 



"A whistled wichity wichity wichity about describes the common 

 song. On May 8, 1898, half a dozen Yellow-throats temporarily located 

 in the corner of a swamp, uttered unusual songs. One male sang 

 che-e-e-e-e-e like the Worm-eating Warbler. The five other males, 

 no females noted, sang che-a-we-a che-a-we-a che-a-we-a occasionally 

 transposing the syllables -we-a-che-a. The alarm note is a reedy 

 tsip or chip, not to be mistaken for that of any other of our Warblers. 

 The period of song is from arrival or shortly after, to about June 

 11-20, when they appear to be less active, until July 2-6 to July 10- 

 August 2." {Burns, MS.) 



"The Yellow-throat is a full-voiced and rather irregular singer. 

 Not only does its prevalent song-form vary greatly with regions, but 

 different individuals in the same region have notable peculiarities of 

 utterance, both constant and occasional. The typical form of its song 

 around Monadnock sounds to me like Witty-titty, witty-titty, etc., 

 but this type is often widely varied from. Still, the Yellow-throat seems 

 to be a bird with one rather than two or more main songs. Like the 

 Chestnut-side, it sometimes mocks, or seems to mock, other birds. 

 Queerly enough, in the only case of this I was ever witness to, the bird 

 mimicked was a Swamp Sparrow, just as with the Chestnut-side. The 

 imitation was equally adequate and convincing, and was repeated many 

 times ; — a long, loud, rattling Swamp Sparrow trill, ending with a few 

 normal witti-titty notes of Yellow-throat song. Like the Chestnut- 

 side, too, this bird lived among Swamp Sparrows. Their clear chant 

 seems to be peculiarly catching. 



"Among the Yellow-throat's several peculiar call-notes, none is 

 more characteristic than the grating, wren-like Brrrrrr — a little, 

 long-drawn snarl, — which does not seem often to have been described. 

 Its flight-song, uttered from a height of five to fifty feet above the 

 bush-tops, is made, like the Oven-bird's, of a hurried jumble of ordin- 

 ary song and different song and call-notes. It is uttered oftenest in 

 late summer, but is far from rare throughout the breeding season, from 

 April onwards." {Thayer, MS.) 



Miss Paddock sends four notations: 



>rn rrjp 



}jri mn 



±s 



^ 



