Identifier: birdlifeguid00chap (find matches)
Title: Bird-life; a guide to the study of our common birds
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: Chapman, Frank M. (Frank Michler), 1864-1945 Seton, Ernest Thompson, 1860-1946
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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iption of teacher, teacher, teacher, TEACHER,TEACHES, is so applicable that no one would think ofdescribing it in any other way. The bird seems to exerthimself to the utmost, and no one hearing this far frommusical performance would imagine that he could im-prove upon it. But if some evening during the heightof the mating season you will visit the Oven-birdshaunts, you may hear a song whose wildness is startling.It is the flight-song of the Oven-bird, transforming thehumble chanter into an inspired musician. Soaring highabove the trees, he gives utterance to a rapid, ecstaticwarbling so unlike his ordinary song that it is difficult tobelieve one bird is the author of them both. As an architect the Oven-bird is also distinguished.His unique nest is built on the ground of coarse grasses,weed stalks, leaves, and rootlets, and is roofed over, theentrance being at one side. It thus resembles an old-fashioned Dutch oven, and its shape is the origin of itsThe Oven-bird arrives from the South
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Plate LXVIII. Page 175. HOUSE WEEN.Length, 5-00 inches. Upper parts brown, marked with black andgrayish; under parts grayish white. MARYLAND YELLOW-THROAT. m 171 about May 1, and its eggs are laid about the 20th of themonth. They are white, speckled or spotted with cinna-mon and reddish brown. The Maryland Yellow-throat is an abundant inhabit-ant of thickets and bushy undergrowths, readily iden-M . , tilled by his black mask and yellow Yellow-throat, breast, nervous activity, and character-GeotUypis trichas. istic notes. Some birds must be ap-proached with caution, but nothing savean actual attack upon his home will cause the Yellow-throat to leave its shelter. Hopping from limb to limb,he advances to the border of the thicket, then retreats toits depths, ail the time uttering an impatient chock, chit,or pit, and, if forced to fly, he goes only to the next clumpof bushes. The Yellow-throats somewhat explosive song is soeasily set to words and so variable that there are manyversions of

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