BIRDS OF KANSAS. 583 



with umber, reddish to very dark brown and obscure lilac, thick- 

 est around the larger end; in form, oval. 



GEN-US ICTERIA VIEILT.OT. 



"Bill broad at base, but contracting rapidly and becoming attenuated when 

 viewed from above; high at the base (higher than broad opposite the nostrils); 

 the culmen and commissure much curved from the base; the goiiys straight. 

 Upper jaw deeper than the lower; bill without notch or rictal bristles. Nostrils 

 circular, edged above with membrane, the feathers close to their borders. Wings 

 shorter than tail, considerably rounded; first quill rather shorter than the sixth. 

 Tail moderately graduated; feathers rounded but narrow. Middle toe, without 

 claw, about two-thirds the length of tarsus, which has the scutella fused exter- 

 nally in part into one plate." 



Icteria virens (LINN.). 



YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT. 

 PLATE XXXHI. 



Summer resident; abundant in the eastern part of the State. 

 Arrive the last of April to first of May; begin laying about the 

 middle of May; leave the last of August to first of September. 



B. 176. K. 123. C. 144. G. 59, 298. U. 683. 



HABITAT. Eastern United States; north to southern New Eng- 

 land, Ontario, Iowa (Minnesota?); west to the edge of the plains; 

 breeding throughout its United States range; south in winter 

 through eastern Mexico to Guatemala. 



SP. CHAR. Third and fourth quills longest; second and fifth little shorter; 

 first nearly equal to the sixth; tail graduated; upper parts uniform olive green; 

 under parts, including the inside of wing, gamboge yellow as far as nearly half 

 way from the point of the bill to the tip of the tail; rest of under parts white, 

 tinged with brown on the sides; the outer side of the tibia plumbeous; a slight 

 tinge of orange across the breast. Forehead and sides of the head ash, the lores 

 and region below the eye blackish; a white stripe from the nostrils over the eye 

 and involving the upper eyelid; a patch on the lower lid, and a short stripe 

 from the side of the lower mandible, and running to a point opposite the hinder 

 border of the eye, white. Female like the male, but smaller; the markings in- 

 distinct; the lower mandible not pure black. Both sexes in winter apparently 

 have the base of lower mandible light colored, the olive more brown, the sides 

 and crissum with a strong ochraceous tinge. First plumage: Kemiges, rectrices, 

 etc., as in the adult. Head, superiorly and laterally, uniform grayish olive, with 

 a barely appreciable whitish supraloral line and orbital ring and without black 

 markings. Whole throat pale ash gray (almost white to the chin), stained later- 

 ally and anteriorly with yellow; entire breast gamboge yellow, obscured with 

 olivaceous gray across the jugulum (probably entirely gray at first, the yellow 

 feathers being probably the beginning of the first moult); abdomen white; flanks 

 and crissum pale buff. (Ridgicay.) 



