WESTERN BIRDS Chat 



what a safe place they had chosen. It was where no 

 boy would be apt to notice it and there were no prowl- 

 ing cats to devour; but, alas, I had not then reckoned 

 with the worst enemy of these birds. 



When two days later I returned with my camera in 

 hopes that I might preserve that wonderfully pretty 

 picture made by that neat, trim little nest and the four 

 birdies I was filled with dismay to behold a long, 

 speckled gopher snake coiled across the nest, where he 

 was resting after having eaten the young. He wriggled 

 away when I parted the grass and I was powerless to 

 end his existence, but if thoughts kill, his life was a short 

 one. I fear me, however, that it may have been this 

 same monster who later ate my baby Towhees farther 

 down the same canyon. With that slippery reptile and 

 his companions at large it is a wonder that any of our 

 ground birds escape. 



GENUS ICTERIA : LONG-TAILED CHAT. 



Long-tailed Ghat: Icteria virens longicauda. 

 FAMILY— WOOD WARBLERS. 



The largest member of this interesting family is so 

 different in actions from his modest, well-behaved 

 cousins, as to make one doubt his relationship. 



And yet, in structure and plumage he is quite evidently 

 a Warbler. This happy-go-lucky clown of the bird world 

 is known as the Chat, the eastern member being the Yel- 

 low-breasted Chat (Icteria virens virens), and the bird 

 ranging from the Great Plains to the Pacific being the 

 Long-tailed Chat. 



In plumage and ways the two birds differ little, being 

 about seven and one-half inches long with plump bodies. 

 The upper parts are an olive-green which is quite incon- 



279 



