28-4 PERCHERS AND SINGERS 
The beauty of this bird far surpasses its minstrelsy, for it 
is but an indifferent singer. The fact is, however, that it has 
so much work to do in catching insects it has little time for 
music; for it will be noticed throughout the bird world that 
the most diligent insect-catchers are not in the habit of 
singing over their work. This is due to the same reason 
that a good deer-hunter does not talk and tell stories while fol- 
lowing a trail. 
The Yellow Warbler ranges from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific, and over practically the whole of North America save 
the arctic barrens, Alaska, and our arid southwestern states. 
Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright says: “It is one of the particular 
victims which the cow blackbird selects to foster its random 
eggs, but the warbler puts its intelligence effectively to 
work, and sometimes builds a floor over the unwelcome egg.” 
(Birdcraft, p. 95.) 
Tue YeLLow-BreEasteD CHat! is much larger than the 
typical wood warblers, being 714 inches long to their 5 or 514 
inches. It has an olive-green back and a sulphur-yellow 
breast and throat, with a white line extending from its beak 
above and around its eye. By these colors, and its erect tail, 
it may easily be recognized. It is a very pert and saucy bird, 
and much given to frequenting the haunts of country dwellers. 
The Chat is not a great singer. He has no regular song, 
and the notes he utters are jerky, erratic and elusive. Its 
voice has some peculiar quality which renders this bird very 
difficult to locate by sound alone. Many times I have been 
completely misled by its call notes coming from a thicket, 
1 T[e-te'ria vi'rens. Length, 7.25 inches. 
