22 THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 



the swallows is they always take their nests again, after we pull the spar- 

 row's nest out with a wire hook. 



For the first time we had two pairs of Baltimore Orioles on our place 

 this year. One pair built their nest in a pear tree about 15 feet from 

 the Martin house and the other pair built their nest in a large old burr oak 

 near the garden about 50 yards from where the first pair built. The 

 Orioles were very peaceful and never had any trouble with each other. 

 One of them, kept calling every day until Sept. 5. A pair of Orchard 

 Orioles also built their nest in a pear tree about 15 feet from the Martin 

 house and about 30 feet from the Baltimore Oriole nest. The Orioles 

 seemed to like the Martins and never had any trouble with them. Mourning 

 Doves were more plentiful again this year. One pair built in an apple 

 tree in the orchard, but I did not watch them. Another pair built in a 

 small plum tree in the garden and were successful in raising two young. 

 Afterward they again occupied the same nest, but for some reason aban- 

 doned it. Dickcissels were scarce this year because most of the clover 

 froze out last winter and there were no clover fields for them to breed in. 

 This is the first year since 1914 that I did not hear the Yellow-breasted 

 Chat sing. I often went to a piece of brush land where a pair nested in 

 other years, but could not hear any. There are not many Bob-whites 

 here this fall. Most of the early nests get destroyed when the farmers 

 make their hay in June. There are also hundreds of other birds' nests de- 

 stroyed by the mowers in haymaking time, such as the Meadowlark, Grass- 

 hopper Sparrow and Dickcissel. 



John J. Schafer. 



The Yellow-Breasted Chat 



Data relating to the occurrence and nesting habits of the Yellow- 

 breasted Chat in the different portions of Illinois are none too plentiful. 

 In notes from Rockford, printed elsewhere, Miss VanDuzer reports the 

 identification of one as late as September 28th of this season, Mr. John 

 Schafer in his notes from Port Byron near the Mississippi River in north- 

 ern Illinois reports that this is the first year since 1914 that he did not 

 hear the Yellow-breasted Chat sing. A pair had nested in his neighbor- 

 hood during past years. In Mrs. Ellen Drummond Farwell's "Bird Ob- 

 servations near Chicago" under date of May 12, 1898, and May 12, 1902, 

 she relates her experience with the Yellow-breasted Chat near Lake Forest. 

 At both dates it would appear that there were nests of this species in that 

 vicinity. Mr. Orpheus M. Schantz has volunteered a comment upon its 

 habits and Mr. Vandercook writes from Odin in southern Illinois, where 

 the bird is an established summer resident. 



Mr. Schantz writes : — 



"Among the many migrant birds that honor us with their presence in 

 northern Illinois none has been more mysterious and elusive than the chat. 

 Strikingly garbed, shy, and usually silent, this handsome warbler is prob- 

 ably as little known here as any of the warbler throng that pass through 

 during the spring migrations. 



Once many years ago, on a dripping June morning at Riverside, when 

 the air was filled with bird songs, and the vegetation was still wet after 

 an early morning shower, suddenly there came clearly and distinctly a. new 



