114 WOOD NOTES AND NEST HUNTING. 



peculiar scolding Chip ! which expresses so much 

 distress and solicitude, and which has the power 

 and eloquence behind it to arrest your steps for 

 a time, however good your intentions may be in 

 searching for the nest. Surely it cannot be far 

 away. The male has arrived with a spanner in 

 his beak, which does not prevent him from chatter- 

 ing his discomfort at my near approach. A small 

 bird he is, with upper parts much the color of the 

 bark of the shrubs ; the breast greenish yellow, 

 with a broad band of black covering the cheeks, 

 and a narrower light one above it. This orna- 

 ment the female does not have, and she is some- 

 what smaller. 



The application and meaning of the technical 

 term (G-eothylpis trichas) by which the yellow-throat 

 is designated in scientific books is, says Coues, 

 " obscure, its only pertinence being in geo-, earth, 

 signifying the humility of this bird of brake and 

 brier." 



Keeping a sharp lookout, I see the pair flit down 

 among the sedges, the white tops of the meadow 

 rue trembling as they push against the stout stems, 

 and go skulking here and there among the tussocks 

 of rushes where their nest is concealed. Approach- 

 ing cautiously, and tenderly pushing aside every 



