402 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 
The Maryland Yellow-Throat, with cheerful devoted- 
ness to the great object of his summer migration, the 
attachments and cares of his species, passes his time 
near some shady rill of water, amidst briars, brambles, 
alders, and such other shrubbery as grow in low and wa- 
tery situations. Unambitious to be seen, he seldom as- 
cends above the tops of the underwood, where he dwells 
busily employed in collecting the insects on which he 
feeds. After these, like the Wren, he darts into the 
deepest thicket, and tlneads his devious way through 
every opening ; he searches around the stems, examines 
beneath the leaves, and raising himself on his peculiarly 
pale and slender legs, peeps into each crevice in order 
to seize by surprise his tiny lurking prey. While thus 
engaged, his affection to his neighbouring mate is not 
forgotten, and with a simplicity, agreeable and charac- 
teristic, he twitters forth, at short intervals, his ’ whititetee 
9 whititetee ’ whititetee , but his more common song is 
’ whittitshee ’whittitshee, or ’ wetitshee ’wetitshee wee ; and 
sometimes I have heard his note like, ’ivetitshee wetit shee, 
’ wit’yu we. On this last syllable a plaintive sinking of the 
voice renders the lively, earnest ditty of the active minstrel 
peculiarly agreeable. Copying apparently from the Cardi- 
nal Bird, the song was, in one instance, which came to my 
notice/ vitiyu ’ vitiyu ’ vitiyu . The whole is likewise often 
varied and lowered into a slender whisper, or tender reve- 
rie of vocal instinct. Sometimes he calls out, teetshoo , teeU 
shoo, and sewaidedit sewaidedit sewaiditsewee, or sewaidi - 
dit sewaiditsiwee, as he busily darts through the bloom- 
ing and odor-breathing shrubs of the grove or garden, 
which he examines with minute attention, and sometimes 
springs perpendicularly after his retreating and discovered 
prey. He appears by no means shy or suspicious, as 
long as his nest is unapproached ; but for the safety of 
