94 YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT. 



Pennant, Gmelin, and even Dr Latham, however, should have 

 arranged it with the flycatchers, is certainly very extraordi- 

 nary ; 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 in the same plate, bespeaks it at 

 once to be of a different 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 

 (Manakin), 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 im- 

 mediately below ; the belly and vent are white ; the front, 

 slate coloured, 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 Mus- 

 cicapa 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 having the inside of the mouth of 

 a dirty flesh colour, which, in the male, is black; in other 

 respects, their plumage is nearly alike. 



