6.12 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Adult male: A broad “mask’’ of deep black covering the forehead und sides of head 
and neck, including the eye, and bounded posteriorly by a narrow edging of bluish-white 
or gray; rest of upper parts, including wings and tail, olive-green, grayer in front, greenish 
on rump and upper tail-coverts; chin, throat, and breast bright yellow, fading to yellowish 
white on the belly, and becoming brownish on sides and flanks; under tail-coverts bright 
yellow. Female without any black or white on head; olive green above; grayish on side 
of head; throat and breast pale yellow; belly and sides brownish white; under tail-coverts, 
buffy. 
Leeth of male 4.40 to 5.75 inches; wing 2.05 to 2.20; tail 1.90 to2. Female somewhat 
smaller. 
294. Yellow-breasted Chat. Icteria virens virens (Linn.). (683) 
Synonyms: Chat, Common Chat, Yellow Chat.—Turdus virens, Linn., 1758.—Icteria 
viridis, Bonap., 1825, Nutt., 1832, Aud., 1834. 
Plate LXIII. 
Largest of the warblers, almost as large as the Catbird, and recognizable 
at a glance by the olive-green or olive-gray back, black stripe from bill 
to eye, bordered above and below by white, and especially by the rich 
golden yellow throat and breast and abruptly white belly. Wings and 
tail are like the back and unspotted. 
Distribution.—Eastern United States to the Plains, breeding north to 
Ontario and southern New England; south in winter to eastern Mexico, 
Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. 
Making all due allowance for the peculiar habits of the Chat and the 
character of the country frequented, it is nevertheless certain that it 
is not a common bird anywhere in the state. It seems to be entirely 
confined to that part of Michigan south of 43°, and practically to the 
three lower tiers of counties. The reports seem to show that it is a regular 
but by no means a common visitor to Monroe, Washtenaw and Wayne 
counties, and probably also to Hillsdale, Branch and St. Joseph counties, 
and it has been taken, or at least satisfactorily seen, in half a dozen other 
counties. 
The northernmost record seems to be that of Dr. Atkins, who states 
that at Locke, Ingham county, it was first taken August 11, 1876 and 
was common until October 2. This record is decidedly puzzling, since 
the period indicated is precisely that during which the Chat is practically 
silent, and aside from this statement of Dr. Atkins we have no record 
of the bird in the state in the fall. Careful search for this species in the 
vicinity of Lansing, Ingham county, was unrewarded for nearly a dozen 
years, but on May 21, 1905, at Chandler’s Marsh, about two miles north 
of the Agricultural College, the writer an B. H. Swales heard one of these 
birds several times, and later in the day about a mile west of Park Lake, 
Clinton county a second one was heard. Neither of these was obtained 
or even seen, but as both observers are perfectly familiar with the notes 
of the birds there can hardly have been any mistake. 
Pp. A. Taverner states that in June 1894, Mr. A. B. Covert, Dr. Wolcott 
and himself collected half a dozen Chats in a limited locality near Ann 
Arbor, and he was informed that Mr. Covert and Professor Worcester 
took the eggs of the Chat in the same locality a year or two later. At 
Pearl Beach, St. Clair county, June 5, 1904, Mr. Taverner caught a glimpse 
