594 BULLETIN 20 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



tant automobile horn. One of the other birds sat on the top of a dead 

 bush in full view, all hunched up as if its back were broken and with 

 tail hanging straight down. Every now and then it would stretch 

 up its neck, which appeared very thick and out of proportion, with 

 feathers all ruffled up on end, and utter a triple note hoo-hoo-hooy 



The chat usually sings within the dense thickets in which it hides, 

 or perhaps from the top of some small tree or bush only a few feet 

 above the thicket, but Clarence F. Stone mentions in his notes, sent 

 to me by Verdi Burtch, one that he heard and saw singing in the top 

 of a large tree, 45 feet above the ground. 



Dr. Daniel S. Gage tells me that he heard a chat give a number of 

 times "a note which we could liken only to the sweet tone of a silver 

 bell." 



Field marks. — Its large size, heavy bill, and long tail will distinguish 

 the eastern yellow-breasted chat from any of the other wood war- 

 blers, also from the yellow-throated vireo, which it suggests in color 

 pattern, though the chat has no white wing bars. The olive-green up- 

 per parts, with no white in wings or tail, the white stripe over the eye, 

 the bright yellow throat and breast, and the pure white abdomen are all 

 diagnostic. Its behavior and, above all, its vocal performances are 

 unlike those of any other bird ; as it is more often heard than seen, it 

 is most easily recognized by its noisy voice. 



Enemies. — The yellow-breasted chat is a common victim of the cow- 

 bird, but it will often desert its nest after the alien egg is deposited. 

 Dr. Friedmann (1929) gives about one hundred records of such para- 

 sitism, and mentions only three cases of tolerance, though doubtless 

 there have been many other cases where chats have accepted the eggs, 

 which are about the same size as its own, and have raised the young. 

 He says : "Apparently there is considerable variation in the sensitive- 

 ness of Chats around their nests, but the bulk of the evidence goes to 

 show that normally a Cowbird's egg has little chance of ever being 

 hatched by a Yellow-breasted Chat." 



Winter. — Dr. Skutch contributes the following account: "During 

 the winter, the yellow-breasted chat spreads over Central America, 

 including both coasts and the lower parts of the highlands, as far as 

 southern Costa Rica. In this country it is rare and I have never seen 

 it ; but I knew it as a rather abundant winter resident in the Caribbean 

 lowlands of Honduras, and on both sides of Guatemala. Here I found 

 it on the coffee plantations of the Pacific slope, up to about 3,500 feet 

 above sea-level, in January ; and while I have no midwinter record for 

 higher altitudes, on the shore of Lake Atitlan, at 4,900 feet, during the 

 last week of October, I saw two — a number which, considering the 

 retiring habits of the bird, indicates fair abundance. 



"The chats arrive in northern Central America toward the end of 

 September. On October 1, 1930, they suddenly became exceedingly 



