YELLOW-BKEASTED CHAT. 



ICTEBIA VIBIDIS. 



AS one approaches the haunts of the yellow-breasted 

 chat, the old rule for children is reversed, he is 

 everywhere heard, nowhere seen. Seek him ever so slyly 

 where the ear has just detected him, instantly you hear 

 him elsewhere ; and this with no sign of a flight. The 

 chat revels in eccentricities. Some tones of his loud 

 voice are musical, others are harsh ; and he delights in 

 uttering the two kinds in the same breath, occasionally 

 slipping in the notes of other birds and, on some au- 

 thorities, imitating those of quadrupeds. I have discov- 

 ered in his medleys snatches from the robin, cat-bird, 

 oriole, kingfisher, and brown thrasher. Wilson refers to 

 his "great variety of odd and uncouth monosyllables/' 

 I have detected three such, " char," " quirp," and " whir ; " 

 and they were given with distinctness. 



The male birds, generally preceding the females in their 

 migrations, locate and at once begin a series of vocal 

 and gymnastic exercises. A marked example of these 

 performances is a jerky flight straight upward perhaps 

 fifty feet, and a descent in the same fussy fashion. The 

 favorite time is just before dusk ; but if there be a moon, 

 a carousal of some sort goes on all night, the evident 



