BIRDS OF NEW YORK 455 



second brood, although I have no definite evidence that a second one is 

 reared. 



Icteria virens virens (Linnaeus) 

 Yellow-breasted Chat 



Plate 98 



T u r d u s virens Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. Ed. 10. 1758. 1:171 

 Icteria viridis DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 126, fig. 71 

 Icteria virens virens A. 0. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 324. No. 683 

 icteria, from Gr., meaning jaundice, referring to the bird's yellow color; virens, 

 being green 



Description. Upper parts olive green; throat and breast rich yellow; 

 belly white; lore black; stripe from nostril over the eye, upper and 

 under eyelid and a narrow maxillary streak white; bill black; feet leaden 

 blue. Female : Very similar but duller, especially the lore, which is gray- 

 ish. Young : Like the female. 



Length 7.44 inches; extent 10; wing 3; tail 3.15; bill .55; tarsus 1.02. 



Distribution. Breeds from southern Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, 

 Ontario, central New York and southern New England to the gulf coast; 

 winters from Pueblo and Yucatan to Costa Rica. The distribution of 

 the Chat in New York is shown by the map on page 27, volume i of 

 this work. It is a common summer resident in the lower Hudson valley 

 and Long Island. It is extremely local in distribution in other portions 

 of southern, central and western New York, occurring especially in the 

 Delaware, Susquehanna and Chemung valleys and near the southern ends 

 of the Finger lakes. The average date of arrival in southeastern New 

 York is May 9, but it occasionally arrives as early as the 2d of May; in 

 some seasons it is not noted till the 14th. In central New York the dates 

 of arrival are somewhat earlier, averaging May 5; sometimes at Ithaca 

 and Branchport as early as the 30th of April. The last fall dates occur 

 between August 24 and September 13. Definite breeding dates from the 

 interior of New York are as follows: Cohoes, June 19, 1878, A. F. Park; 

 Kendall, June 1885 and 1889, David Bruce; West Seneca, June 17, 1895, 

 James Savage; Holland Patent, June 6, 1898, Williams, Auk 15:331; 



