276 
N£STS AND EGGS OF 
ble that man’s endeavors could succeed any better; perhaps, not so well. 
A full-fledged bird might accustom itself to the aviary, and become quite 
an agreeable pet, but the species has not excited sufficient interest in fan- 
ciers to induce them to make the attempt. 
As shown in the Plate, the Chat is bright olive-green above. Below, 
excepting the abdominal region which ends abruptly with white, the color 
is a bright golden-yellow. The lore is black, and separates the white 
under eyelid from a superciliary line of the same color above, and also a 
short maxillary one below. The wings and tail are unmarked, and glossed 
with olive, while the bill and feet are blue-black. The length varies from 
seven to seven and a half inches ; the wing is about three, and the tail 
three and a quarter. From the male, the female differs in being smaller, 
and in the indistinctness of her markings. 
The eggs are usually four in number. Nests, however, are sometimes 
found with three as a comj)lement, and others with as many as five, though 
rarely. In configuration they are slightly rounded-oval. The ground-color 
vai’ies from a clear, snowy-white to one in which a slight tinge of yellow 
is perceptible, and the markings are chiefly reddish-brown, interspersed 
with a few of a faint lilac color. In some specimens which we have ex- 
amined, the spots are pretty uniformly distributed over the egg-surfaces, 
and this seems to be the rule in the same nest-full. Others have them 
arranged more especially about the larger half, leaving the smaller almost 
barren of them. It is in the latter that the white ground usually prevails. 
A’^ariations also exist in size, even in the same locality, for we have often 
met with eggs that measured as much as .94 of an inch in length, and 
others but .86, and in breadth from .64 to .70. Throughout its entire 
range the species appears to be single-brooded. In the Middle Atlantic 
States this is assured beyond a doubt. 
