232 BESIDE THE GEEAT SALT LAKE. 



this peculiar fellow, a misfortune, an accident, 

 which he avoids with great care, while his voice 

 rings out loud and clear above all others in the 

 shrubbery. I refer to the yellow-breasted chat 

 (Icteria virens), whose summer home is the 

 warmer temperate regions of our country, from 

 the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, and whose 

 unbirdlike utterances prepare one to believe the 

 stories told of his eccentric actions ; this, for 

 example, by Dr. Abbott : 



" Aloft in the sunny air he springs ; 



To his timid mate he calls ; 

 With dangling legs and fluttering wings 

 On the tangled smilax falls ; 

 He mutters, he shrieks 



A hopeless cry ; 

 You think that he seeks 



In peace to die, 



But pity him not ; 't is the ghostly chat, 

 An imp if there is one, he sure of that." 



I first knew the chat if one may be said to 

 know a creature so shy in a spot I have else- 

 where described, a deserted park at the foot 

 of Cheyenne Mountain. I became familiar 

 with his various calls and cries (one can hardly 

 call them songs) ; I secured one or two fleeting 

 glimpses of his graceful form ; I sought and 

 discovered the nest, which thereupon my Lady 

 Chat promptly abandoned, though I had not 

 laid a finger upon it ; and last of all, I had tho 



