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OF NEW ENGLAND. 85 
various kinds, but pine-groves are perhaps their favorite haunts. 
In such places they are usually to be seen on the ground, walk- 
ing about quietly, silently, and with an amusing deliberateness, 
and picking up their food from among the fallen leaves; but 
they betake themselves to trees (rather than to bushes), when 
frightened, when engaged in their pretended or real quarrels 
during courtship, or when they wish to utter their peculiar 
chant. They are endowed with strong parental affection, and, 
when the nest is approached, both male and female exhibit 
great concern, or the latter, if disturbed whilst sitting on her 
nest, feigns lameness, as many other ground-nesting birds do, 
and flutters nimbly away, until, having led the unwary pursuer 
to a distance, she “takes to wing.” 
(d). ‘The Wagtails’ loud monotony — wee-chée, wee-chée, 
wee-chée, wee-chée, wee-chée, wee-chée, wee-chée, wee-chée, wee-chée, 
wee-chée, — which is repeated rapidly with a steadily increasing 
volume, is heard, at intervals, throughout the day. Their 
ordinary notes are a chuck of alarm, and a sharp chick, em- 
ployed chiefly during the period of mating. At night I have 
often heard the male sing very sweetly, his chatter being 
followed by a low musical warble, such as I have rarely heard 
him utter during the day, except sometimes at dusk. He gen- 
erally pours out this music while descending through the air 
from a height to which he has just mounted; but these per- 
formances are almost exclusively confined to the season when 
his' mate is sitting on her eggs or young. 
‘The Wagtails are much oftener heard than seen, the more 
so that they are never gregarious; but the oddity of their 
familiar chant, the quaintness of their habits, and their strong 
conjugal and parental affection, must ever endear them to the 
appreciative naturalist. 
II. GEOTHLYPIS 
(A) tricwas. Maryland “Yellow-throat.” Black-masked 
Ground Warbler. 
(A common summer-resident throughout New England.) 
“"(a). About five inches long. ¢ olive-green above. Fore- 
