BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 



299 



The Yellow-breasted Chat is an example of a bird of the Upper Austral 

 zone that has extended its breeding range into Essex County in the Transition 

 zone. Dr. Holder, 1 in 1846, mentions it in his list of birds from Lynn and 

 vicinity. Putnam, 2 in 1856, notes it in Essex County as : " Summer visitant. 

 Rare." Maynard 3 says of eastern Massachusetts that it is an "exceedingly rare 

 summer visitor. Shot a male. . . . in the spring of 1862. This is the only 

 instance recorded of its capture in this locality." 



In June, 1877, Mr. W. A.Jeffries and his brother, the late Dr. J. A. Jeffries, 

 discovered at Swampscott a pair of Chats with a nest of young, and in later 

 years found them breeding regularly. A valuable paper on the subject was read 

 by Mr. W. A. Jeffries before the Nuttall Ornithological Club on December 2d, 

 1889, and he has kindly allowed me to make extracts from it here. He says : 

 "From 188 1 to the present time, we have found Chats breeding every year. 

 Most of our birds were in Swampscott, but several pairs have been found in 

 Lynn and Salem not far from the Swampscott line. The number of pairs seen 

 in a year breeding has varied from six to twelve. We have found four nests and 

 six pairs of birds in one day without making a special search for them." He 

 also says that Mr. Bradford Torrey found them breeding in Saugus as well as in 

 several neighboring towns outside the County. Mr. Jeffries states that the 

 Chat, while common to the south and along Long Island Sound, extending up 

 the Connecticut Valley to Massachusetts, is not known to breed regularly in any 

 numbers near Boston, until we come to the colonies of Swampscott and Saugus. 

 "Thus we here have an interesting case of a species with a distinctly more 

 southern breeding range, sending an advance guard well beyond its usual range, 

 while in the interspace it does not appear to breed except sporadically." 



"Will it spread from this northern colony or be driven back? This to me 

 is a question of much interest. It is certainly much less rare now than in 

 1877." Mr. Jeffries tells me that the bird has decreased in numbers during the 

 last few years owing to the building up of the country, to the clearing away of 

 the undergrowth by the Gypsy Moth Commission, and to the indiscriminate 

 shooting by Italians. "We have found the Chat in Swampscott from May 10th 

 to 15th, although it probably reaches us before this. It makes a short season 

 with us, as it disappears early in September." 



In speaking of the localities about Swampscott in which the birds are 

 found, he says : "This locality presents an uneven surface, — low rounded hills 



■J. B. Holder: Catalogue of Birds Noticed in the Vicinity of Lynn, during the Years 1844- 

 '5-'6, p. 5, 1846. 



2 F. W. Putnam: Proc. Essex Inst., vol. I, p. 213, 1856. 

 3 C. J. Maynard : The Naturalist's Guide, p. 99, 1870. 



