YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT. 399 



tainly retire to Mexico, Guiana, and Brazil, having myself seen 

 skins of these birds in the possession of a French gentleman, 

 which were brought from the two latter countries. 



By recurring to the synonymes at the beginning of this article, 

 it will be perceived how much European naturalists have 

 differed in classing this bird. That the judicious Pennant, 

 Gmelin, and even Dr. Latham, however, should have arranged 

 it with the Flycatchers, is certainly very extraordinary; as nei- 

 ther in the particular structure of its bill, tongue, feet, nor in its 

 food or manners, has it any affinity whatever to that genus. 

 Some other ornithologists have removed it to the Tanagers; but 

 the bill of the Chat, when compared with that of the Summer 

 Red-bird in the same plate, bespeaks it at once to be of a dif- 

 ferent tribe. Besides, the Tanagers seldom lay more than two or 

 three eggs the Chat usually four; the former build on trees; 

 the latter in low thickets. In short, though this bird will not 

 exactly correspond with any known genus, yet the form of its 

 bill, its food, and many of its habits, would almost justify us 

 in classing it with the genus Pipra (Manakin), to which family 

 it seems most nearly related. 



The yellow-breasted Chat is seven inches long, and nine 

 inches in extent; the whole upper parts are of a rich and deep 

 olive green, except the tips of the wings, and interior vanes of 

 the wing and tail feathers, which are dusky brown; the whole 

 throat and breast is of a most brilliant yellow, which also lines 

 the inside of the wings, and spreads on the sides immediately be- 

 low; the belly and vent are white; the front slate-coloured, or 

 dull cinereous; lores black; from the nostril a line of white ex- 

 tends to the upper part of the eye, which it nearly encircles; 

 another spot of white is placed at the base of the lower mandi- 

 ble; the bill is strong, slightly curved, sharply ridged on the 

 top, compressed, over-hanging a little at the tip, not notched, 

 pointed, and altogether black; the tongue is tapering, more 

 fleshy than those of the Muscicapa tribe, and a little lacerated 

 at the tip; the nostril is oval, and half covered with an arching 



