FLYCATCHER. 220 



Merle vert de la Caroline, Buf. iii. 396. 

 Yellow-breasted Chat, Cates. Car. i. 50. Bartr. Trav. 300. 



Chattering Flycatcher, Gen. Syn. iii. 359. Arct. Zool. ii. No. 266. Shaiv's Zool. x. 

 pi. 356. 



LENGTH seven inches and a half. Bill ten lines, black, strong, 

 slightly bent, ridged at the top ; nostrils oval, half covered by a 

 membrane ; head and upper parts of the body dull green ; over the 

 eye a streak of white, and beneath a small white spot; in the 

 direction of the jaw a slender line of white; the lore black, curving 

 beneath the eye ; throat, and beneath, as far as the belly, yellow; 

 from thence to the vent, dirty white ; quills dull green ; tail brown ; 

 legs black. 



Inhabits Carolina and Pennsylvania, but rarely within 2 or 300 

 miles of the sea; frequents the banks of great rivers, and is very shy; 

 flies with extended wing ; sings well, and with great variety ; imitates 

 various creatures, and has the faculty of uttering a coarse, hollow, 

 sounding noise in the throat or crop, seeming at one time to be at a 

 great distance, at another very near; comes in May, and after breed- 

 ing, returns in autumn. 



M. Vieillot thinks this bird to have great affinity to the Oriole, in 

 the bill, but as, in his opinion, it is neither Thrush, Flycatcher, nor 

 Oriole, he has formed a new Genus for it : he describes it as only six 

 inches, two lines in length : the male grey-green, with two white 

 streaks on each side of the head, one passing round the eye ; on the 

 side of the head also a black spot; throat and breast orange yellow; 

 the belly white ; tail slightly cuneiform. The female less bright, and 

 no black on the sides of the head. Young birds are greenish grey 

 above, and very pale yellow on the throat and breast. 



They feed on the Carolina nightshade.* 



According to the Amer. Orn. the female has the black and white 

 about the eye less pure ; inside of the mouth dirty flesh-colour, which, 

 in the male, is black ; that it arrives the first week in May, and 



* Solanum Carolinense. — Lin. 



