Species III. SYLVIA MARILANDICA. 
MARYLAND YELLOW-THROAT. 
[Plate VI. Fig 1, Male ] 
Turdus Trichas, Linn. Si/st. I., 293. — Edw. 237. — Yellow-breasted Warbler, Arct. 
Zool. n., No. 283. Id. 284. — Le Figuier aux joues noires, Burr, v., 292. — La 
Fauvette d poitrine jaune de la Louisiane, Buff, v., 162. PI. Enl. 709, fig. 2. — 
Lath. Syn. iv., 433, 32. 
This is one of the humble inhabitants of briars, brambles, alder 
bushes, and such shrubbery as grows most luxuriantly in low watery situ- 
ations, and might with propriety be denominated Humility, its business 
or ambition seldom leading it higher than the tops of the underwood. 
Insects and their larvse are its usual food. It dives into the deepest of 
the thicket, rambles among the roots, searches round the stems, exa- 
mines 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 dis- 
agreeable, song or twitter, ivhitititee, whitititee, ivhitititee ; 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 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 other- 
wise lay waste his fields. It seldom approaches the farmhouse, or city ; 
but lives in obscurity and peace amidst its favorite thickets. It arrives 
in Pennsylvania 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 briars, some- 
times 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 twenty-second 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, 
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