1094 Report of State Geologist. 



both Indiana and Michigan. Hitherto there had been but one record 

 from Lake County, but Prof. E. Ij. Moseley saw one at East Chicago, 

 Ind., July 2, 1893. July 13, 1894, Mr. F. M. Woodruff took a nest 

 at Grand Crossing, Cook County, 111., and on the 17th saw two birds 

 at Sheffield, Ind. He also informs me that Mr. Geo. K. Cherrie saw 

 two and took one at Hyde Lake, June 16, 1896, probably in Indiana. 

 There seems to have been a considerable extension of their numbers 

 northward in 1894. It was taken at Ann Arbor, Mich., the spring of 

 1894 (L. W. Watkins); at Petersburg, Mich., two were taken May 3, 

 and two May 17, 1894; two nests were also found. It had not been 

 taken before since 1877 (J. Trombley). One was seen at Cedar Point, 

 near Sandusky, 0., June 23, 1894, and another at Huron River, twelve 

 miles south of Sandusky, July 10, 1894. They arrive in southern In- 

 diana from April 23 to May 4, and those found farther north reach 

 there, generally, after the latter date. The first arrivals were noted 

 at Bicknell, April 23, 1897, April 27, 1894; Brookville, April 24, 

 1897, May 4, 1882; Moore's Hill, April 29, 1893; Spearsville, April 

 •27, 1895, April 29, 1894; Greensburg, April 25, 1896, April 30, 1895; 

 Greencastle, May 2, 1894, 1895, May 9, 1896; Wabash, May 10, 1892. 



Every one who is acquainted with brier patches, thickets and bushy 

 clearings, knows this bird. If they do not know its name, they know 

 it as the bird which fills the thicket with such sounds as no other 

 bird ever dreamed of. It is more often heard than seen. Were it not 

 that occasionally its yellow breast comes into view, we should think 

 it but a voice among the bushes. They are great ventriloquists. Often 

 a person unacquainted with their habit will look long in the direction 

 from which the sound seems to come and not see the author, who is 

 elsewhere. They have quite a variety of notes, which, with their 

 strange antics, render them the most interesting summer birds among 

 the bushes. At mating time they devote much time to aerial evolu- 

 tions, which are always interesting because of their oddity, but at 

 times become exceedingly ludicrous. Wliile performing these various 

 evolutions they give voice to a multitude of strange sounds, that seem 

 to come from here, there and everywhere, except the throat of the 

 odd and awkward bird descending towards the clump of bushes near 

 by. The late Dr. J. M. Wheaton gives the follo^dng excellent expres- 

 sion of his feelings regarding this bird: 



"When migrating, no bird is more shy and retiring than the Chat. 

 They skulk along silently in thickets, along the banks of streams, or 

 on the edges of upland woods. But no sooner has pairing been effected 

 than their whole nature seems changed, and the silent bird becomes 

 the noisiest of the wood. His shyness gives way to an audacity that is 



