318 HABITS OF CHATS 



viduals of true virens, rather than the grayer and longer- 

 tailed form later called longicauda by Lawrence. 



The common Chat is a migratory bird of general diffusion 

 during the movement and in the breeding season throughout 

 the Eastern United States, as far north at least as Massachu- 

 setts and Dakota, though it is not abundant north of the Mid- 

 dle States. Wherever Chats may be found, they are of this 

 species, excepting in the Middle and Western Provinces. No 

 Chats are known in the West Indies; but the birds migrate in 

 the fall beyond our limits, through Mexico and into Central 

 America. On their return, they reach the Middle districts 

 usually the latter part of April, and complete their migration 

 by the early part of the month following ; they remain until 

 about the middle of September, when, after rearing their one 

 or two broods, they betake themselves away. It is difficult to 

 observe their arrival with precision, unless the collector is care- 

 fully on the watch for them, for they come furtively, and for 

 some little time keep most sedulously concealed in their favor- 

 ite retreats amidst dense shrubbery. Such period of conceal- 

 ment probably corresponds to the interval between the arrival 

 of the males and the following after of their more dilatory 

 mates, which may be several days or even a week. Their man- 

 ner of migration is somewhat uncertain ; we do not know that 

 they ever make long-continued flights overhead, and rather pre- 

 sume that they come skulking through the bushes. But the 

 fact that their ordinary flight is wayward, desultory, and never 

 long continued, is no proof that the emergency of the migration 

 does not develop different and much better sustained powers 

 of the wing. 



However this may be, no sooner is the ardor of occasion stim- 

 ulated by the presence of the females than the gay and gaudy 

 Chats develop those eccentricities that make them famous. 

 They grow too restless to abide the covert they have chosen 

 for their home, and are seen incessantly in motion, flitting with 

 jerky movement from one bush and brier-patch to another, 

 giving vent to long-pent emotions in the oddest notes imagina- 

 ble. Such a medley of whistling, chuckling, barking, and mew- 

 ing sounds proceeds from no other bird, unless it be the Mocking- 

 bird itself, to whom all possibilities of song are open. During 

 such performances, the Chats seem sedulous to keep concealed, 

 displaying ingenuity and perversity in thwarting our best efforts 

 to catch them at their tricks. The notes, in all their infinite 



