SUMMER RED-BIRD. 63 
classing this bird. That the judicious Mr, Pennant, Gmelin, and eveu 
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, (Fig. 21,) bespeaks it at once to be of a dif- 
ferent 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, 
ere to which family it seems most nearly related. 
The Yellow-breasted Chat is seven inches long, and nine inches in 
extent; 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 brilliant 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 spot of white is placed at the base of the 
lower mandible; the bill is strong, slightly curved, sharply ridged on 
the top, compressed, overhanging a little at the tip, not notched, 
pointed, and altogether black; the tongue is tapering, more fleshy 
than those of the Muscicapa tribe, and a little lacerated at the tip; 
the nostril is oval, and half covered with an arching membrane; legs 
and feet, light blue, hind claw rather the strongest, the two exterior 
toes united to the second joint. 
The female may be distinguished from the male by the black and 
white adjoining the eye being less intense or pure than in the male, 
and in paving the inside of the mouth of a dirty flesh-color, which, in 
the male, is black ; in other respects, their plumage is nearly-alike. 
——~+>——_. 
SUMMER RED-BIRD.—TANAGRA ASTIVA.— Fies. 21, 22. 
Tanagra Mississippensis, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. 421, 5.—Mexican Tanager, Lath. 
Synop. iii. 219, 5. 8, —Tanagra variegata, Ind. Orn. i. 421, 6. — Tanagra estiva, 
Ind. Orn. i. 422, 7.— Muscicapa rabra, Linn. Syst. 1. 326, 8.— Buff. vi. 252. 
Pi. enl. 741. — Catesby, Car. 1. 56.—Merula flammula, Sandhill d-Bird, 
Bartram, 299.— Peale’s Museum, No. 6134. 
PYRANGA JESTIVA. — Vizu.ort. 
Subgenus Pyranga,* Tanagra estiva, Bonap. Synop. p. 105. 
Tue change of color which this bird is subject to during the first 
year, and the imperfect figure first given of it by Catesby, have de- 
* Pyranga has been used by Vieillot to designate a group among the Tanagers, 
having the bill of considerable strength, and furnished on the upper mandible with 
