48 The Birds of Albany County 



have gathered exact data which give him a residence in Albany 

 County. My friend, Mr. William C. Richard, of Yellowstone 

 Park, formerly employed here as a taxidermist by the State 

 of New York, took several specimens and found it breeding 

 near Kenwood. The frontispiece in this book is from a 

 mounted specimen taken by Mr. Richard near Waterford, in 

 Saratoga County. He also took the female and the nest for 

 State uses. Another excellent ornithologist also informs me 

 that she observed this species near her summer home on Lake 

 George. This undoubtedly carries the bird much farther 

 north than other writers have placed him. 



While I have observed the Chat in other sections of the 

 country, I have not had the good fortune to run across it during 

 my five years' residence in Albany County. Our friend with 

 the lovely yellow breast is the very wizard among the birds. 

 I do not know of any one who pretends to understand him. 

 He shrieks, whistles, calls, purrs and whines, and performs 

 strange gyrations in the air. On a limpid June morning, 

 when the air is sweet with the perfume of the white azalea 

 and the tangle in which his nest is built is heavy with dew, he 

 is fond of disturbing the peaceful scene by a very bedlam of 

 unearthly sounds; then again he is as silent as a ghost and 

 the sharpest eyes cannot detect him or his mate. I have 

 found a great number of their nests, but I never flushed the 

 bird from one; the domicile was always absolutely deserted, 

 though the eggs were warm, showing that the parent had just 

 slipped off silently into the surrounding shrubbery. I have no 

 doubt but that I was being watched by two pairs of black 

 eyes, but the birds remained invisible to me. I have, however, 



