Yellow- Breasted Chat. 165 



Great Plains. It winters in eastern Mexico and Guate- 

 mala. It is said to be rare iu the northern portions of 

 our State, and indeed I have not found it really abundant 

 in any of the resorts where I have seen it in this section. 

 It returns to its summer home at about the time of the 

 great northward movement of the vireos, warblers, and 

 other species dependent on the foliage for the major part 

 of their sustenance, arriving here during the latter days 

 of April and in early May. 



The males travel in advance of the females, and come 

 in full song, soon announcing their presence by their pe- 

 culiar, original performances. In an open, bushy pasture 

 between two patches of woodland I frequently found the 

 chats. Among the wild blackberry and hazel bushes they 

 could flit and dodge, and when so inclined they could 

 perch upon the telegraph wire that was stretched along 

 the road between the two pieces of woodland, and there 

 whistle, cackle, mew, and sputter as they pleased. At the 

 sight of approaching persons, they were certain to drop 

 headlong into the thickets. There they made themselves 

 neighbors to the field sparrows, hiding their homes in ad- 

 joining bushes, associating also with the indigo buntings, 

 towhees, and cardinals, which made their dwellings in the 

 tangles, though there appeared to be little affinity between 

 the chats and their neighbors. Indeed, I seldom see two 

 chats together, wherever I find them; and I have formed 

 the notion that, as individuals, they are too fond of their 

 own performances to listen quietly to those of their foU 

 lows, and hence prefer to skulk and chat apart from 

 others. 



The bushes which fringe the banks of the swamp-lakes 

 and which crowd the edges of the bottom woodlands are 

 famous resorts for the chats, and there I found them 

 dwelling and nesting most commonly in this section. 

 Bushy areas and thickets along secluded streams at- 

 tract them, though they prefer bushes in open areas to 

 undergrowth, liking the sunlight better than the shade, 

 and displaying their greatest animation and powers of 

 voice under the influence of the warmest sunshine. How- 

 ever, I have heard the chats sing in the early hours of 

 the night, perhaps called from restless slumber by the 



