YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT. 1 73 



at Walla-Walla, on the Columbia, breeding in the month of 

 June. It retires to th^ south about the middle of August, or 

 as soon as the only brood it raises are fitted to undertake their 

 distant journey. 



The males, as in many other migrating birds, who are not 

 continually paired, arrive several days before the females. As 

 soon as our bird has chosen his retreat, which is commonly in 

 some thorny or viny thicket where he can obtain concealment, 

 he becomes jealous of his assumed rights and resents the least 

 intrusion, scolding all who approach in a variety of odd and 

 uncouth tones very difficult to describe or imitate, except by 

 a whistling, in which case the bird may be made to approach, 

 but seldom within sight. His responses on such occasions are 

 constant and rapid, expressive of anger and anxiety ; and still 

 unseen, his voice shifts from place to place amidst the thicket. 

 Some of these notes resemble the whistling of the wings of a 

 flying duck, at first loud and rapid, then sinking till they seem 

 to end in single notes. A succession of other tones are now 

 heard, some like the barking of young puppies, with a variety 

 of hollow, guttural, uncommon sounds frequently repeated, 

 and terminated occasionally by something like the mewing of 

 a cat, but hoarser, — a tone to which all our Vireos, particularly 

 the young, have frequent recurrence. All these notes are 

 uttered with vehemence, and with such strange and various 

 modulations as to appear near or distant, like the manoeuvres 

 of ventriloquism. In mild weather also, when the moon 

 shines, this exuberant gabbling is heard nearly throughout the 

 night, as if the performer was disputing with the echoes of his 

 own voice. 



Soon after their arrival, or about the middle of May, the 

 Icterias begin to build, fixing the nest commonly in a bramble- 

 bush, in an interlaced thicket, a vine, or small cedar, 4 or 5 

 feet from the ground. The young are hatched in the short 

 period of 1 2 days, and leave the nest about the second week 

 in June. While the female is sitting, the cries of the male are 

 still more loud and incessant. He now braves concealment, 

 and at times mounts into the air almost perpendicularly 30 



