Green, Greenish Gray, Olive, and Yellowish Olive Birds 
quented lane near a wood until their family is reared, when, with 
a perceptibly happier strain in his voice, he once more haunts our 
garden and row of elms before taking the southern journey. 
Ovenbird 
(Seiurus aurocapillus) Wood Warbler family 
Called also: GOLDEN-CROWNED THRUSH ; THE TEACHER; 
WOOD WAGTAIL ; GOLDEN-CROWNED WAGTAIL ; 
GOLDEN-CROWNED ACCENTOR 
Length — 6 to 6. 15 inches. Just a shade smaller than the English 
sparrow. 
Male and Female — Upper parts olive, with an orange-brown 
crown, bordered by black lines that converge toward the bill. 
Under parts white; breast spotted and streaked on the sides. 
White eye-ring. 
Range — United States, to Pacific slope. 
Migrations — May. October. Common summer resident. 
Early in May you may have the good fortune to see this little 
bird of the woods strutting in and out of the garden shrubbery 
with a certain mock dignity, like a child wearing its father’s 
boots. Few birds can walk without appearing more or less 
ridiculous, and however gracefully and prettily it steps, this 
amusing little wagtail is no exception. When seen at all — which 
is not often, for it is shy — it is usually on the ground, not far 
from the shrubbery or a woodland thicket, under which it will 
quickly dodge out of sight at the merest suspicion of a footstep. 
To most people the bird is only a voice calling, “ teacher , 
teacher , teacher , TEACHER, TEA CHER / ” as Mr. Burroughs 
has interpreted the notes that go off in pairs like a series of little 
explosions, softly at first, then louder and louder and more shrill 
until the bird that you at first thought far away seems to be 
shrieking his penetrating crescendo into your very ears. But 
you may look until you are tired before you find him in the high, 
dry wood, never near water. 
In the driest parts of the wood, where the ground is thickly 
carpeted with dead leaves, you may some day notice a little bunch 
of them, that look as if a plant, in pushing its way up through 
the ground, had raised the leaves, rootlets, and twigs a trifle. 
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