YELLOW OR ORANGE CONSPICUOUS 549 
683 a. LONG-TAILED CHAT. — Icteria virens longicauda. 
Famity : The Wood Warblers. 
Length: 7.00-8.00. 
Adults: Upper parts olive-gray ; superciliary, eye-ring, and malar stripe 
white ; lores and line under eye deep black ; throat and breast bright 
yellow ; belly and under tail-coverts white. 
Young : Upper parts plain dull olive-gray ; lores gray ; throat whitish ; 
chest, sides, and flanks grayish ; rest of under parts white. 
Geographical Distribution: Western United States, east to Great Plains ; 
south into Mexico. 
California Breeding Range: Chiefly in upper Sonoran zone, west of the 
Sierra Nevada. 
Breeding Season : May. 
Nest : Of dry leaves, grasses, and strips of bark ; lined 
with finer grasses ; placed in thickets and brambles 
of low undergrowth, from 2 to 5 feet above the 
ground. 
Eggs: 3 or 4; glossy white or pinkish, 
speckled and spotted with shades 
of brown, which are heaviest at the 
larger end. Size 0.92 X 0.70. 
“Is the odd jumble of 
whistle, chucks, and caws ut- 
tered by one bird in that 
copse yonder, or by half a 
dozen birds in as many places ? 
Approach cautiously and per- 
haps you may see him in the 
air,—a bunch of feathers 
twitched downward by queer, 
jerky notes which animate it. 
One might suppose so peculiar 
683 a. LONG-TAILED CHAT. 
a performance would occupy 
: F * ‘* Where h vhistled d san 
his entire attention, but never- from dawn until dark.” 
