A CHAT COURTSHIP 285 



and finally found the bird yards away from the spot whence 

 its go-as-you-please voice seemed to come. 



"A Chat courtship," says Mr. A. C. Webb, in "Some 

 Birds, and their Ways," "is a sight never to be forgotten. In 

 the spring, when birds begin housekeeping, the male Chat 

 charms himself and his mate by some remarkable perform- 

 ances in the air. Launching himself from the top of some 

 tall tree, he flutters from side to side, flirts his tail, stops, 

 stands on his head, dangles his legs as if they were broken, 

 turns somersaults, and makes a monkey of himself generally, 

 as he descends to the thicket below, where his mate is perched 

 among the briers. Sometimes he starts from the low bushes 

 and rises almost straight up into the air until he is above the 

 tree-tops. He chatters and screams as he goes, telling her 

 to watch him now as he comes down, and see if in all her life 

 she ever saw a bird that could do such wonderful feats. No 

 doubt to her eyes he is the picture of grace and elegance as he 

 performs on his flying trapeze, but to us his clownlike antics 

 seem ridiculous." 



The Chat of the East is represented in the Far West by a 

 long-tailed variety, and between the two their range covers 

 nearly the whole of the United States, British Columbia and 

 Mexico. 



THE AMERICAN REDSTART 1 looks like a small, pinkish- 

 yellow understudy of the Baltimore oriole, 5J^ inches long. 

 Its colors and color pattern are very similar to those of our 

 old friend of the elm trees, velvety black on the back and head, 

 reddish orange on the sides and breast and white on the 



1 Se-toph'a-ga ru-ti-cil'la. Length, 5.50 inches. 



