MARYLAND YELLOW-THROAT. 89 



higher than the tops of the underwood. Insects and their 

 larvae 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, ivliitititee, 

 loliitititee, 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 suffi- 

 cient security. It often visits the fields of growing rye, 

 wheat, barley, &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 

 farmhouse or city, but lives in obscurity and peace, amidst 

 its favourite thickets. It arrives in Pennslyvania about the 

 middle or last week of April, and begins to build its nest 

 about the middle of May : this is fixed on the ground, among 

 the dried leaves, in the very depth of a thicket of briers, 

 sometimes arched over, and a small hole left for entrance ; the 

 materials are dry leaves and fine grass, lined with coarse hair ; 

 the eggs are five, white, or semi-transparent, marked with 

 specks of reddish brown. The young leave the nest about 

 the 22d of June ; and a second brood is often raised in the 

 same season. Early in September they leave us, returning 

 to the south. 



This pretty little species is four inches and three quarters 

 long, and six inches and a quarter in extent; back, wings, 

 and tail, green olive, which also covers the upper part of the 

 neck, but approaches to cinereous on the crown ; the eyes are 

 inserted in a band of black, which passes from the front, on 

 both sides, reaching half way down the neck ; this is bounded 

 above by another band of white, deepening into light blue ; 



