212 YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT. 



attempts to shoot one of them, he found himself completely baffled ; and 

 was obliged, as he himself informs us, to employ an Indian for that pur- 

 pose, who did not succeed without exercising all his ingenuity. Catesby 

 also observed its dancing manoeuvres, and supposed that it always flew 

 with its legs extended ; but it is only in these paroxysms of rage and 

 anxiety that this is done, as I have particularly observed. 



The food of these birds consists chiefly of large black beetles, and 

 other coleopterous insects ; I have also found whortleberries frequently 

 in their stomach, in great quantities ; as well as several other sorts of 

 berries. They are very numerous in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, 

 particularly on the borders of rivulets, and other watery situations, in 

 hedges, thickets, &c., but are, seldom seen in the forest, even where 

 there is underwood. Catesby indeed asserts, that they are only found 

 on the banks of large rivers, two or three hundred miles from the sea ; 

 but though this may be the case in South Carolina, yet in Maryland 

 and New Jersey, and also in New York, I have met with these birds 

 within two hours' walk of the sea, and in some places within less than a 

 mile of the shore. I have not been able to trace him to any of the 

 West India islands ; though they certainly retire to Mexico, Guiana, 

 and Brazil, having myself seen skins of these birds in the possession of 

 a French gentleman, which were brought from the two latter countries. 



By recurring to the synonymes at the beginning of this article, it will 

 be perceived how much European naturalists have difiered in classing 

 this bird. That the judicious Pennant, Gmelin, and even Dr. Latham, 

 however, should have arranged it with the Flycatchers, is certainly very 

 extraordinary ; as neither in the particular structure of its bill, tongue, 

 feet, nor in its food or manners, has it any affinity whatever to that 

 genus. Some other ornithologists have removed it to the Tanagers ; 

 but the bill of the Chat, when compared with that of the Summer Red- 

 bird in the same plate, bespeaks it at once to be of a difierent tribe. 

 Besides, the Tanagers seldom lay more than two or three eggs — the 

 Chat usually four ; the former build on trees ; the latter in low thickets. 

 In short, though this bird will not exactly correspond with any known 

 genus, yet the form of its bill, its food, and many of its habits, would 

 almost justify us in classing it with the genus Pipra (Manakin), to which 

 family it seems most nearly related. 



The Yellow-breasted Chat is seven inches long, and nine inches in ex- 

 tent ; the whole upper parts are of a rich and deep olive green, except 

 the tips of the wings, and interior vanes of the wing and tail feathers, 

 which are dusky brown ; the whole throat and breast is of a most bril- 

 liant yellow, which also lines the inside of the wings, and spreads on the 

 sides immediately below ; the belly and vent are white ; the front slate- 

 colored, or dull cinereous ; lores black ; from the nostril a line of white 

 extends to the upper part of the eye, which it nearly encircles ; another 



