216 Bird Studies. 



Central Dakota northward. It has been recorded as accidental from near 

 Charleston, South Carolina. 



This bird is another European species that has been recorded from 

 Southern Greenland. It is a bird about seven inches long with a rather long 



tail and of slim build. It has a black crown extending 

 White Wagtail. wdl down Qn the back of the neck> The forehead is white 



Motacilla alba Linn. . .... . 11-1 / 



and there is a white line above the eye and the sides of 

 the head are white. The back and shoulders are grayish. The tail is black 

 with some of the outer feathers white. The throat and breast are black and 

 the rest of the lower parts white. 



It breeds on the ground generally near water. The nest is made of dry 

 grasses and like material. The eggs are nearly white, profusely speckled with 

 brown. They are nearly four fifths of an inch long and about three fifths of 

 an inch in their other diameter. 



The Yellow-breasted Chat is a bird of such marked characteristics as 

 to have achieved fame. To say that these birds are eccentric and totally 

 Yellow-breasted unlike any of their kindred conveys but little to such as 

 Chat. have not met them. With all the curiosity of the Catbird, 



icteria virens (Linn.), these birds seem ever alive to the fact, that they too at- 

 tract much attention. And while you may hear many Chats in the regions 

 they frequent, as they are very loquacious, your opportunities of seeing them 

 will be in a large inverse ratio. Very wary of exhibiting themselves to the 

 watcher, they are constantly near, and their medley of curious notes rings out 

 so near at hand that you feel sure of seeing the singer. However, persistent 

 observation is sure to be rewarded and sooner or later the song, that has so 

 often tantalized you from out some tangle of bushes, will be heard overhead 

 and close to you. Looking, you will see a bird in the air, apparently careless 

 of the onlooker, engrossed in a performance at once wonderful and grotesque. 



With dangling legs and slowly flapping wings, with every feather seem- 

 ingly awry, and with an uncertainty of flight strangely like some large moth 

 or butterfly, such a mixture of curious notes is poured out as has no kind of 

 parallel in our bird acquaintance. This is no soft melody that one has to be 

 near to hear, but a series of loud jerky, detached notes, now whistles, now clucks, 

 and again croaks and chuckles, that defy imitation, musical or otherwise. 



