400 NOTES ON THE 



in the thickets, when they are mostly silent and somewhat 

 suspicious. It is not long, however, before their familiar 

 notes are heard about our houses, in the currant bushes, and 

 in the orchard. In the time of nesting they retire from such 

 familiar places to the borders of woods, near damp, swampy 

 localities, in dense thickets. Contrary to their reputed pro- 

 clivity to the vicinity of farm houses, in the eastern states, 

 they avoid them during incubation nearly if not quite uni- 

 formly. The earliest nests I have discovered were occupied 

 by the 17th of May, although as a general rule, it is a little 

 later. They frequently linger till late in September, and an 

 instance has occurred when a few of them were seen in Octo- 

 ber. Dr. Hvoslef reports them abundant in his section on the 

 5th of May. Mr. Washburn found them common in the Red 

 river valley. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Upper parts olive-green, tinged with brown towards the 

 middle of the crown; chin, throat and breast as far as the mid- 

 dle of the body, and under tail coverts, bright yellow; belly 

 dull whitish buff; sides of body strongly tinged with light 

 olive-brown; under coverts glossed with the same; a band of 

 black on the forehead, (about 0.20 of an inch wide in the mid- 

 dle) passing backward so as to cover the cheek and ear coverts, 

 and extending a little above the eye; this band bordered behind 

 by a suffusion of hoary ash, forming a distinct line above the 

 eye, and widening behind the ear coverts into a large patch 

 with a yellow tinge. 



Length, 5.50; wing, 2.40; tail, 2.20. 



Habitat, eastern United States to the Mississippi river. 



ICTERIA VIRENS. (L.). (683.) 



YELLOW BREASTED CHAT. 



This species is a regular summer resident of the southwest- 

 ern portion of the State, reaching those sections early in May. 

 They are not common, and rarely extend their incursions be- 

 yond the lower tier of counties, one or two individuals having 

 been obtained in the valley of the St. Peter's river, and a like 

 number observed in Traverse county. I am familiar with them 

 in their western haunts, and have long hoped to have an op- 

 portunity to note their* habits here, but I have never met with 

 them personally in my locality. They are reported by Mr. 

 Chas. R. Keyes and Dr. H. S. Williams, of Davenport, la., as 

 rather common summer residents of that state. In their cata- 

 logue of the Birds of Iowa, they say: "Summer resident, 



