1862. 



NEW ENGLAKD FARMER. 



523 



For the Ketc Ennland Farmer. 

 THS BIKDS OF M"BW EKTO-LAND — No. 22. 



Yellow-breasted Chat — CeilarBird— Bohemian Wax-Wing. 



The Yellow-breasted Chat {Iderla viridis, 

 Bonap.,) is exceedingly rare in New England, but, 

 being a more Southern species, is common enough 

 in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and the States 

 southward to Guatemala, and westward to the 

 Missouri. It is occasionally seen at Springfield, 

 and in different parts of Connecticut, and I have 

 recently been informed of a nest of these birds, 

 discovered in Lynn, the present year. It is a bird 

 of very singular habits, and peculiar characteris- 

 tics, and has long been a puzzle to naturalists, in 

 refei"ence to its place in zoological systems ; hav- 

 ing been placed in half-a-dozen different genera, 

 and in several families, but is generally regarded 

 as ranking near the Vireos. From Wilson's ad- 

 mirable account of this bird I borrow the foUow- 



"In its voice and manners, and the habit it has 

 of keeping concealed while shifting and vociferat- 

 ing around you, it differs from most other birds 

 with which 1 am acquainted, and has considerable 

 claims to originality of character." "When the 

 male has taken up his residence in a favorite situ- 

 ation, which is almost always close thickets of ha- 

 zel, brambles, vines and thick underwood, he be- 

 comes very jealous of his possession, and seems 

 offended at the least intrusion ; scolding every 

 passenger as soon as thej' come within view, in a 

 great variety of odd and uncouth monosyllables, 

 ■which it is difficult to describe, but which m<t\- be 

 readily imitated, so as to deceive the bird himself, 

 and draw him after you for half a quarter of a mile 

 at a time, as I have sometimes amused myself in 

 doing, and frequently without once seeing him. 

 On these occasions his responses are constant and 

 rapid, strongly expressive of anger and anxiety ; 

 and while the bird itself remains unseen, the voice 

 shifts from place to place, among the bushes, as if 

 it proceeded from a spirit. First is heard a repeti- 

 tion of short notes, resembling the whistling of the 

 wings of a Duck or Teal, beginning loud and rapid, 

 aud falling lower and slower, till they end in de- 

 tached notes ; then a succession of others, some- 

 thing like the barking of young puppies, is fol- 

 lowed by a variety of hollow, guttural sounds, each 

 eight or ten times repeated, more like those pro- 

 ceeding from the throat of a quadruped than of a 

 bird ; which are succeeded by others not unlike the 

 mewing of a cat, but considerably hoarser. All 

 these are uttered with great vehemence, in such 

 different keys, and with such peculiar modulations 

 of voice, as sometimes to seem at a considerable 

 distance, and instantly as if just beside you; now 

 on this hand, now oti that ; so that from these ma- 

 noeuvres of ventriloquism you are utterly at a loss 

 to ascertain from what particular spot or quarter 

 they proceed. If the weather be mild and serene, 

 with clear moonlight, he continues gabbling in the 

 same strange dialect, with very little intermission, 

 during the whole night, as if disputing with his 

 own echoes." 



The nest is usually placed in the upper part of 

 a thick bush, in an almost impenetrable thicket. 

 It is built externally of dry leaves, lined with 

 strips of bark, fibrous rootlets, and dry grass. The 

 eggs are four, light flesh colored, sprinkled over 

 with specks of brown. 



The length of this species is seven inches, stretch 

 of wings about nine. Upper parts deep olive 

 green ; throat and breaRt, bright yellow. 



Of the sub-family BomhyrilliiKe (the Fruit-eat- 

 ers or Chatterers,) we have two species, one ex- 

 clusively American, and the other common to 

 both continents. 



The common Cedau Bird or Cherry Bird, 

 {Ampdis Americana, Wils., A. cedronim, Baird,) 

 so well known to all fruit-growers, on account of 

 its depredations upon the small cultivated fruits, 

 may be taken as a typical representation of this 

 sub-family. It is found throughout nearly the 

 whole of North America, southward as far as Cen- 

 tral Amei'ica ; and throughout this extensive re- 

 gion it rears its young; and is even seen in winter 

 quite fiir to the northward, being influenced in 

 its migration more by the supply of food than 

 by climate. Small, roving parties are occasional- 

 ly seen in various parts of this State during this 

 season, stopping for a considerable time wherever 

 cedar berries abound, which, with a few other wild 

 berries, constitute almost their whole food through 

 the winter months ; yet I have found them, on 

 dissection, to be exceedingly fat, even in February. 

 These birds, ebgant and beautiful in form and 

 coloring, are most voracious feeders, subsisting at 

 all seasons chiefly upon fruits ; no kind that they 

 can manage to swallow, either wUI or cultivated, 

 comes amiss ; with which they occasionally gorge 

 themselves to such intolerable excess, that they 

 can scarcely fly ; and in May they sometimes stuff 

 themselves nearly to suffocation with the petals of 

 apple blossoms. Nevertheless they destroy many 

 insects, darting upon them as they pass, in the 

 manner of the Fly-catchers, or pursue them in the 

 air, like Swallows, for a long time together, as I 

 have often observed them do towards the close 

 of summer. Among their own species they are 

 very social, associating at all seasons in small com- 

 panies, varying from three or four to fifty, and 

 when they alight on a tree, they settle so closely 

 that a single discharge at them will bring down a 

 large ])art of the flock. In many places, epicures 

 consider them delicate eating. They possess no 

 song, their only note being a simple, feeble 

 screech, which is their call note. One striking 

 peculiarity of this species is its late breeding ; 

 while all the resident birds, and those that arrive 

 early, set about this occupation as soon as the be- 

 ginning of warm weather, some even in April : 

 these birds do not commence nesting till the early 

 broods of some other species have flown ; it being 

 generallj'^ late in June before the Cedar Birds be- 

 gin to lay ; and I have seen their young not fully 

 fledged the first week in September. The nest is 

 commonly placed in the orchard, and is large and 

 thick, composed of coarse grass and roots of plants, 

 well lined with fine rootlets, moss, and a wooly 

 substance found on several species of ferns. The 

 eggs are four, bluish white, blotched with dark 

 purple and black. Whenever the nest is ap- 

 proached, the female glides off silently, and how- 

 e'fer the nest may be disturbed, seldom makes her 

 appearance. 



Length, seven inches ; extent, eleven. Head, 

 with an erectable, high, pointed crest, which, with 

 the neck, is a delicate fawn color, darkening on 

 the back, and passing into bluish slate on the 

 rump ; frontlet and lares velvety black ; chin very 

 dark, lightening into fawn on the breast, and pass- 



