88 



MARYLAND YELLOW-THROAT. 

 SYLVIA MARILANDICA. 

 [Plate VL— Fig. 1.] 



Turdus trichas^ Linn. Syst. I, 293. — -Edw. 237. — Yellow-breasted Warbler, Arct. Zool. II, 

 No. 283. Id. 284. — Le Figuier auxjoues noires, De Buff. V, 292. — La Fauvette a poi- 

 trinejaune de la Louisiane, Buff. V, 162. Fl. enl. 709, Jig. 2. — Lath. Syn. IV, 433, 32. 

 — Fe ale's Museum, JVo. 6902. 



THIS is one of the humble inhabitants of briars, brambles, 

 alder bushes, and such shrubbery as grow most luxuriantly in low 

 watery situations, and might with propriety be denominated Hu- 

 milky ^ its business or ambition seldom leading it 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, 

 whitititee, 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 particu- 

 larly numerous in the low swampy thickets of Maryland, Pennsyl- 

 vania and New Jersey. It is by no means shy; but seems deli- 

 berate 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, &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 his favorite 

 thickets. It arrives in Pennsylvania about the middle, or last week, 



