THE YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT. 161 



tangled and almost impenetrable patches of briars, sumach, prickly ash, and 

 different species of smilax, wherever a rivulet or a pool may be found. 



As in other migratory species, the males precede the females several days. 

 As soon as they have arrived, they give free vent to their song at all hours 

 of the day, renewing it at night when the weather is calm, and the moon 

 shines brightly, seeming intent on attracting the females, by repeating in 

 many varied tones the ardency of their passion. Sometimes the sounds are 

 scarcely louder than a whisper, now they acquire strength, deep guttural 

 notes roll in slow succession as if produced by the emotion of surprise, then 

 others clear and sprightly glide after each other, until suddenly, as if the 

 bird had become confused, the voice becomes a hollow bass. The performer 

 all the while looks as if he were in the humour of scolding, and moves from 

 twig to twig among the thickets with so much activity and in so many 

 directions, that the notes reach the ear as it were from opposite places at the 

 same moment. Now the bird mounts in the air in various attitudes, with 

 its legs and feet hanging, while it continues its song and jerks its body with 

 great vehemence, performing the strangest and most whimsical gesticulations; 

 the next moment it returns to the bush. If you imitate its song, it follows 

 your steps with caution, and responds to each of your calls, now and then 

 peeping at you for a moment, the next quite out of sight. Should you have 

 a dog, which will enter its briary retreat, it will skip about him, scold him, 

 and frequently perch, or rise on wing above the thicket, so that you may 

 easily shoot it. 



The arrival of the females is marked by the redoubled exertions of the 

 males, who now sing as if delirious with the pleasurable sensations they 

 experience. Before ten days have elapsed, the pairs begin to construct their 

 nest, which is placed in any sort of bush or briar, seldom more than six feet 

 from the ground, and frequently not above two or three. It is large, and 

 composed externally of dry leaves, small sticks, strips of vine bark and 

 grasses, the interior being formed of fibrous roots and horse-hair. The eggs 

 are four or five, of a light flesh colour, spotted with reddish-brown. In 

 Louisiana and the Carolinas, these birds have two broods in the season; but in 

 Pennsylvania, where they seldom lay before the 20th of May, they have 

 only one brood. The eggs are hatched in twelve days. The male is seldom 

 heard to sing after the breeding season, and they all depart from the Union 

 by the middle of September. Their eggs and young are frequently destroyed 

 by snakes, and a species of insect that feeds on carrion, and burrows in the 

 ground under night. The young resemble the females, and do not acquire 

 the richness of the spring plumage while in the Union. 



The food of the Yellow-breasted Chat consists of coleopterous insects and 



Vol. IV. 23 



