File:Birds and nature in natural colors - being a scientific and popular treatise on four hundred birds of the United States and Canada (1913) (14752115561).jpg

Identifier: birdsnatureinnat02chic (find matches)
Title: Birds and nature in natural colors : being a scientific and popular treatise on four hundred birds of the United States and Canada
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors:
Subjects: Birds -- North America
Publisher: Chicago : A.W. Mumford, Publisher
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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is more common song iszvhittitshee, ivhittitshee, or wetitshee, wetitsheeivee; sometimes I have heard hisnotes like zvetitshee wetit shee, \viteyu we. On this last syllable a plaintivesinking of the voice renders the lively, earnest ditty of the active minstrel pe-culiarly agreeable. The whole is likewise often varied and lowered into a slenderwhisper or tender reverie of vocal instinct. He appears by no means shy or suspicious as long as his nest is unap-proached, but for the safety of that precious treasure he scolds, laments andentreats with great anxiety. These birds generally nest in secluded thickets ofthe forest, or the low, bushy meadow, but sometimes they take up their abodein the garden, or the field contiguous to the house, and if undisturbed they showa predilection for the place which has shown them security for themselves andtheir young. They commence their labor of building about the middle ofMay, fixing the nest on or near the ground among dry leaves, withered grass 362
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or brush, and often choose for security the most intricate thicket of briars,so that the nest is often sheltered and concealed by projecting weeds and grass.Sometimes a mere tussock of grass or accidental pile of brush is chosen. Itis made of dry sedge grass and a few leaves loosely wound together and sup-))orted by the weeds or twigs where it rests; the lining consists entirely offine bent grass. The eggi^, about five in number, are white, inclined to flesh color with touchesof specks and small spreading blotches, and sometimes with a few lines of twoor three shades of reddish brown, chiefly disposed toward the greater end. Theyoung leave the nest about the middle of June, and a second brood is sometimesraised in the course of the season. The parents and young now rove about inrestless prying troops and take to the most secluded marshes where they passtheir time in comparative security till the arrival of that period of scarcitywhich warns them to depart. As early as the close of Jul

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