312 SYSTE3IA TIC SYNOPSIS. — PA SSERES — OSCINES. 



43. ICTE'RIA. (Gr. "iKrepos, ikteros, the jaundice; hence, yellowness; from the bh-d's golden 

 breast.) Chats. Bill stout, high at the base (higher than broad at nostrils), thence com- 

 pressed ; unnotched, unbristled, with much curved culmen and commissure. Frontal feathers 

 reaching the nostrils, which are subcircular and scaled. Wings much rounded, shorter or not 

 longer than the graduated tail. Tarsus partly booted, longer than middle toe; feet stciut. 

 Inner toe cleft to the degree usually seen in this family. Of largest size for this family. Form 

 stout. Coloration simple, chiefly olive, yellow, and white. Sexes alike. Nest in bushes. Eggs 

 white, spotted. Probably only one species. 



144. I. vi'rens. (Lat. virens, being green. Fig. 172.) Yellow-breasted Chat. $ 9 , adult : 

 Bright olive-green, below golden-yellow, belly abruptly white ; lore black, isolating the white 

 under-eyelid from a white superciliary line above and a short white maxillary line below; wings 



and tail unmarked, glossed with olive ; bUl blue-black : 

 feet plumbeous. Length about 7.50 ; extent about 10.00 ; 

 wing about 3.00; tail about 3.25. Little dift'erence with 

 age, sex, or season in the plumage of this rich bird ; very 

 young have the fore under parts gray oT white slashed 

 wdth yellow, no black on lore, and lower mandible pale ; 

 white of beUy and crissum tinged with buff. Eastern U. S., 

 N. to Massachusetts, abundant, migi-atory ; breeds through- 

 FiG. 172. -Yellow-breasted Chat, nat. out its range; an exclusive inhabitant of low tangled un- 

 size. (Ad nat. del. E.G.) dergrowth, and oftener heard than seen, except during the 



mating season, when it performs the extravagant aerial evolutions for which, as well as for 

 the variety and volubility of its song, it is noted. Nest in a crotch of a bush near the ground ; 

 eggs 3-4, very variable in size and markings, about 1.00 X 0.80, white, dotted, spotted or 

 blotched with reddish-browns and the usual lilac shell -markings. 



145. I. V. longicau'da. (hoi. hngus, long; ccmcZa, tail.) Long-tailed Chat. <? 9*. Entire 

 upper parts, including exposed surfaces of the wings and tail, grayish-olive. Quills of the wings 

 and tail fuscous. Fore half of body below, including lining of the wings, rich yellow ; hinder 

 half white, shaded with gray on the sides. Loral region black ; a sharp maxillary line, 

 another fi-om nostril over the eye, and the under eyelid, white. Bill blackish-plumbeous ; feet 

 plumbeous. Size of the last ; tail averaging longer. Middle and Western Provinces of the 

 U. S. This form, in its typical manifestation, differs from virens in the shade of the upper 

 parts — quite grayish instead of pure olive-green; in the dullest-colored birds there is scarcely 

 a tinge of olive in the gray of the upper parts. The yellow of the breast is as rich, however, as 

 that of virens. As in the cases of so many birds from this region, the tail averages longer than 

 that of Eastern representatives of the same species. 



17. Subfamily SETOPHACIN>E : Fly-catching Warblers. 



These usually have the bill depressed, broader than high at base, notched and hooked at tip, 

 and furnished with long stiff bristles that reach half-way or more from the nostrils to the end 

 of the biU. In other respects they are not distinguished from the rest of the family. While 

 many or most other Sylvicolidce are expert in taking insects on the wing, these capture their 

 prey in the air with special address, simulating in this respect the true Clamatorial flycatchers 

 with which some species of Setophaga used to be classed in the extensive old genus " Musci- 

 capa." It is hardly necessary to say that, however closely some of them may resemble the 

 Tyrannidce, they are at once distinguished from those Clamatorial birds by the Oscine character 

 of the tarsi, and the presence of only nine primaries. The Setophagince are most developed in 

 Central and South America, where they are represented by three or four genera, and upwards of 

 forty species. They include some very brilliant little birds, with glossy black, orange, and even 

 carmine red, very likely mistaken by heedless bugs for the tints of flowers. Besides the species 



