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BIRDS OF AMERICA 



YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT 



Icteria virens virens i l.iniuciis) 



A II, I', Xumher 1.8. 



Other Names. — Chat ; Common Chat ; Yellow Chat ; 

 Vellmv Mockinyhirrl: Polyglot Chat. 



General Description. — Length. 7'_. inches. Upper 

 Iiarts, olive-Krecn : under parts, yellow and white. Bill, 

 much shorter than head, stout, and arched; wing, 

 moderate in length, rounded ; tail, as long or longer 

 than wing, rounded, the feathers narrow with rounded 

 tips. 



Color. — Adult AI.\le : Above, plain grayish olive- 

 green, grayer on upper tail-coverts and (usually) 

 lower rump; a stripe (extending from nostrils to a 

 short distance l>ehiT>(I eve), a crescentic mark on Inwer 



NEST OF YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT 

 Found amid a dense tangle of briers 



eyelid, and front iiart of cheeks, white; lores and 

 around eye ( immediately beneath the white mark on 

 lower eyelid), black or dark slaty; sides of head, gray 

 (sometimes tinged with olive-green), with narrower 

 and indistinct paler shaft-streaks ; chin, throat, cheeks 

 (except in front), chest, breast, upper abdomen, and 

 front half or more of sides, rich f'ure Icinon-ycllozv, 

 sometimes (in highly plumaged specimens) tinged with 

 orange ; flanks, pale gray ; rest of under parts, white, 

 the under tail-coverts, sometimes tinged with buff; 

 under wing-coverts, yellow ; bill and inside of mouth, 

 black ; iris, brown ; legs and feet, dusky bluish-gray. 

 Adult Female: Similar to the adult male, but slightly 

 smaller, and duller in coloration, the black or dark 

 slate of lores and around eye usually replaced by gray, 

 the yellow of under parts usually less pure or deep 

 (that on sides of breast sometimes tinged with olive), 

 the flanks and under tail-coverts more strongly bufTy, 

 and the lower bill usually lighter colored. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest: Built in midst of tangled 

 thickets or briers from 3 to 5 feet up; constructed of 

 dead leaves, strips of bark, dried grass, and weed 

 stalks and lined with fine grasses. Eggs : 3 to 5, 

 usually 4, pure white, tinged with pink when fresh, 

 generally fairly evenly spotted with clearly outlined 

 specks of chestnut and lavender, sometimes coalescing 

 into a wreath around larger end. 



Distribution. — Eastern North America; breeds from 

 southern Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ontario, 

 Central New York, and southern New England south 

 to southeastern Texas, southern parts of Gulf States, 

 and northern Florida: winters from Pueblo, Vera 

 Cruz, and Y'ucatan to Costa Rica ; casual in Maine. 



l^'ew birds appear to ]i(issess aiiythiiif,' like a 

 sense of humor. Most of tlieni seem to be con- 

 tented enough, and many act and sinsj — especi- 

 ally in breeding time — as if they were really 

 happy : but these moods e\'idently are purely sub- 



jective; they d(.) not reveal any cajiacity to make 

 or to take a joke. 



.\ conspicuous e.xception to this rule is the 

 lUue Jay, who is a natural horn mountebank — 

 if there is such a thing in hirdland — and another 



Courtesy of Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 



YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT (■ nat. sizel 



In Tom-Sawyer-Iike sliowing off, he has no equal 

 the American bird-world 



