Warblers SONG-BIRDS. 



Yellow-breasted Chat: Icteria virens. 



Plate 19. Fig. 1. 



Length: 7.50 inches. 



Male and Female : Olive-green above ; brilliant yellow throat, breast, 

 and wing linings. Whitish belly, white line over eye, and white 

 spot beneath. Brownish glaze on wings and tail. Strong, curv- 

 ing, blue-black beak. Feet lead-coloured. 



Song : A varied whistle, with a decided ventriloquistic quality, inter- 

 spersed with mocking syllables. 



Season : Common summer resident. May to September. 



Breeds : All through its summer range. 



Nest : Bulky, made of leaves, bark, and dead twigs, lined with grasses ; 

 placed in briary and inaccessible bushes. 



Eggs : 3-4, often of unequal size, white, mottled with buff and spotted 

 with red and lilac. 



Bange: Eastern United States to the Plains, north to Ontario and 

 southern New England, south, in winter, to eastern Mexico 

 and Guatemala. 



A bird easily recognized by its large size and brilliant 

 colour. The Chat has reversed the motto so often preached 

 at children, and is heard more than seen. When seen, how- 

 ever, it is the picture of healthy, well-groomed beauty, with 

 a voice at once powerful and melodious, and a reputation 

 for shyness of disposition, which trait takes the form of 

 a bewitching elusiveness that it seems to know is very 

 attractive. 



Its call notes, and the mocking gibes which it utters from 

 the bushes to the distraction of the bewildered passer-by, 

 are wholly different from the fervent spring song. Then 

 it yields to an ecstasy of feeling, and soars singing into the 

 air, trailing its long legs behind like a Heron, and look- 

 ing, it must be confessed, very foolish; but after a few 

 weeks it abandons its aerial gymnastics and contents itself 

 with taunting, teasing, and misleading both man, beast, and 

 bird. 



On general principles the Chat is a mischief-maker, who 

 starts petty deceits and fosters them, is quick to grasp a 

 situation, knowing at once the most provoking thing to say, 

 and is, in fact, a wood-imp. Near the garden wall there is 



112 



