166 Sketches of Some Common Birds. 



soft, liquid strains of the catbirds who were serenading 

 their lady-loves; yet the best and most varied per- 

 formances of the chats are rarely heard in the night. In 

 my experience the chats sing as frequently on dark nights 

 as in the moonlight, though these songs of the night are 

 delivered only in the mating and early breeding season. 



The nesting season of the chats begins generally with 

 the last week of May, though in advanced seasons they 

 commence the work of nest-building soon after the middle 

 of May. In 1896 I found nests with well incubated eggs 

 on May 29th, and eggs in nests found on June 3d were 

 about ready to hatch. In ordinary years the nests con- 

 tain their full complements of eggs about the end of the 

 first week of June. The site of the nest is generally in 

 the most tangled portions of the copse selected, though 

 frequently I find nests in detached low bushes. The 

 densest portion of the hazel copse and clumps of briery 

 bushes mingled with vines are preferred as sites for their 

 habitations. The nests are ordinarily closely screened by 

 surrounding stems and foliage, but they can not be regu- 

 larly overlooked by experienced observers any more than 

 other nests in the bushes, where so much of the view is 

 obstructed by intersecting stems and overlapping leaves. 

 I frequently find them placed in the base of a clump of 

 "buck-brush," where there is no surrounding vegetation 

 to screen them, and also in low elm bushes in retired lo- 

 calities, no more closely concealed than nests of the car- 

 dinal. The most of the nests are between one and three 

 feet from the ground, though sometimes the nest is found 

 as high as six feet from the ground. Davie records an 

 instance to show that a pair built in a wren box attached 

 to one of the pillars of a piazza which partially fronted a 

 small ravine. The chats are not averse to taking up their 

 quarters even in town, if the conditions are favorable. In 

 the middle of June, 1896, I heard daily the characteristic 

 and unmistakable notes of the chats as I passed along 

 College Avenue, in Carlinville, Illinois, and I have no 

 doubt the birds were nesting in the bushy yards and 

 gardens. 



The nest is usually placed among upright stems, fre- 

 quently in a crotch. The foundation of the wildwood 



