Conspicuously Yellow and Orange 



Yellow-breasted Chat 



(Icteria virens) Wood Warbler family 



Called also: POLYGLOT CHAT; YELLOW MOCKING-BIRD 



Length — 7.=; inches. A trifle over an inch longer than the Eng- 

 lish sparrow. 



Male and Female— \Jn\iorm olive-green above. Throat, breast, 

 and under side of wings bright, clear yellow. Underneath 

 white. Sides grayish. White line over the eye, reaching to 

 base of bill and forming partial eye-ring. Also white line on 

 sides of throat. Bill and feet black. 



Range — North America, from Ontario to Central America and 

 westward to the plains. Most common in Middle Atlantic 

 States. 



Migrations — Early May. Late August or September. Summer 

 resident. 



This largest of the warblers might be mistaken for a dozen 

 birds collectively in as many minutes; but when it is known that 

 the jumble of whistles, parts of songs, chuckles, clucks, barks, 

 quacks, whines, and wails proceed from a single throat, the 

 yellow-breasted chat becomes a marked specimen forthwith — 

 a conspicuous individual never to be confused with any other 

 member of the feathered tribe. It is indeed absolutely unique. 

 The catbird and the mocking-bird are rare mimics; but while the 

 chat is not their equal in this respect, it has a large repertoire of 

 weird, uncanny cries all its own — a power of throwing its voice, 

 like a human ventriloquist, into unexpected corners of the thicket 

 or meadow. In addition to its extraordinary vocal feats, it can 

 turn somersaults and do other clown-like stunts as well as any 

 variety actor on the Bowery stage. 



Only by creeping cautiously towards the roadside tangle, 

 where this "rollicking polyglot" is entertaining himself and his 

 mate, brooding over her speckled eggs in a bulky nest set in a 

 most inaccessible briery part of the thicket, can you hope to hear 

 him rattle through his variety performance. Walk boldly or 

 noisily past his retreat, and there is " silence there and nothing 

 more." But two very bright eyes peer out at you through the 

 undergrowth, where the trim, elegant-looking bird watches you 

 with quizzical suspicion until you quietly seat yourself and 



206 



