STUDENT DAYS 37 



almost to cadmium. The under parts were white 

 shading into grayish on the sides and flanks. 

 Such was this new acquaintance, the yellow- 

 breasted chat, a bird that comes from the South 

 in April, and reaches as far north commonly as 

 Connecticut and southern Minnesota, retiring 

 again in the late summer, spending the winter in 

 Central and northern South America. 



Aside from all I have said about the chat, I 

 am struck by what appears to me an unusual mat- 

 ter in regard to his immigration and emigration. 

 Most of our small birds of passage that are com- 

 mon in eastern North America proceed south- 

 ward, following the land. Ultimately they reach 

 Florida, and passing down that peninsula, thence 

 cross to Cuba, Jamaica, and by this island route 

 finally reach their winter home, whether it be 

 among these islands or in South America. 



Now, I have spent many winters in Florida, 

 and many falls and springs. I have seen all the 

 common migrants as they passed: the scarlet 

 tanagers, many kinds of warblers, the swallows, 

 wrens, rose-breasted grosbeaks, the bobolinks, the 

 orchard and Baltimore orioles ; but I have not 

 seen, nor have I met any one else who has seen, 

 a yellow-breasted chat in Florida. It is common 

 throughout parts of Georgia and the Carolinas, 

 both as a migrant and as a resident breeding bird. 

 I conclude that the yellow-breasted chats pursue a 



