THE PERCHING Birps. 65 
convinced of this, and it is an open question if some 
other birds do not also “ throw their voice” with the 
intention to deceive. When the chat is not hovering, 
he sticks pretty close to the underbrush in which is 
placed the nest, and here and on the ground he 
feeds. One chat, or pair of them, that I closely 
watched during an entire season, did not appear ever 
to wander more than fifty yards from the nest, and I 
am puzzled to think how a sufficient supply of food 
could have been obtained. As insects are depended 
upon, they apparently only had those that wandered 
within the precincts of their summer home, and I 
never saw them in my near-by berry-patches. 
The chat is a night singer. I have heard them as 
late as midnight, when the moon was full, in June, 
and as early as 3.30 a.M. the next morning, when it 
was rather cool and a decided fog covered the low- 
lands. Being astir at all hours, can it be that they 
wander a little more at such times and forage in areas 
they do not visit in daylight ? 
Birds far removed from typical warblers and from 
the chat, and yet belonging to the same great group, 
are the “ Accentors,’ ‘‘ Water-thrushes,” “ Oven- 
bird,” and “ Wagtails.” There are but three species, 
with a far western variety of one of them. The re- 
semblance of one to the other is pretty close, and all 
three are aquatic in habit, sand-piper-like in move- 
ment, and good musicians. 
The “ Oven-bird,” so-called from the character of 
its earth-built nest, is much the best known of the 
three. It reaches the Middle States in April and 
lingers well on into October, if we have a series of 
e 6* 
