182 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
wée, or a soft wée-see-wée-see-wée, much like the song of the 
Yellow Bird (D. estiva), and again a series or repetition of a 
few gentle notes, which form an indefinite song. 
The Redstarts have also a soft chip, which is often repeated 
in the manner of the Snow-bird, a loud chip, a chick, and a few 
minor notes of no importance. 
This species is the last of our numerous warblers (unless the 
chats), and I regret having already finished the biographies of 
these useful and charming birds. 
XII. ICTERIA 
(A) virens. Yellow-breasted Chat. Chat. 
(In New England of rare occurrence, and in the three south- 
ern States only.) 
(a). Seven inches long. Above, bright olive-green. Throat 
and breast, rich yellow. Belly, and superciliary line, white. 
Lore, black. 
(b). The nest is composed of leaves, grasses, strips of bark, 
etc., and is placed in a thicket, bush, or briar. The eggs aver- 
age about 1: X 80 of an inch, and are white, sometimes with 
reddish-brown and obscure lilac spots sprinkled over the sur- 
face (often more thickly about the crown), and sometimes with 
rather faint lilac blotches only (which are occasionally confined 
almost entirely to the smaller end), these being the two ex- 
tremes of coloration. 
(c). Of the remarkable Yellow-breasted Chats I shall here 
make but brief mention, since they have never fallen under my 
personal observation, and because of their very rare occur- 
rence in New England. I have never seen them near Boston, 
and I know but two instances of their capture here. They 
reach Pennsylvania “‘ about the first week in May,” and inhabit 
‘“‘elose thickets of hazel, brambles, vines and thick under- 
wood.” During the mating-season they perform the most ex- 
traordinary antics in the air, and often at night. 
(d). While so doing, and at other times, they utter a great 
variety of extraordinary sounds, some of which are musical 
whistles, and others “ like the barking of young puppies,” “ the 
