SPRING AT THE CAPITAL. 199 



yellow-breasted chat. This bird also has 

 something of the manners and build of the 

 cat-bird, yet he is truly an original. ' The 

 cat-bird is mild and feminine compared with 

 this rollicking polyglot. His voice is very 

 loud and strong and quite uncanny. No 

 sooner have you penetrated his retreat, which 

 is usually a thick undergrowth in low, wet 

 localities, near the woods or in old fields, 

 than he begins his serenade, which for the 

 variety, grotesqueness, and uncouthness of 

 the notes, is not unlike a country skimmer- 

 ton. If one passes directly along, the bird 

 may scarcely break the silence. But pause 

 a while, or loiter quietly about, and your 

 presence stimulates him to do his best. He 

 peeps quizzically at you from beneath the 

 branches, and gives a sharp feline mew. In 

 a moment more he says very distinctly, who, 

 who. Then in rapid succession follow notes 

 the most discordant that ever broke the syl- 

 van silence. Now he barks like a puppy, 

 then quacks like a duck, then rattles like a 

 kingfisher, then squalls like a fox, then caws 

 like a crow, then mews like a cat. Now he 

 calls as if to be heard a long way off, then 

 changes his key, as if addressing the specta- 

 tor. Though very shy, and carefully keep- 



