YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT. 91 



among the bushes, as if it proceeded from a spirit. First are heard 

 a repetition of short notes, resembling the whistling of the wings 

 of a duck or teal, beginning loud and rapid, and falling lower and 

 slower till they end in detached notes; then a succession of others^ 

 something like the barking of young puppies, is followed by a va- 

 riety of hollow guttural sounds, each eight or ten times repeated, 

 more like those proceeding from the throat of a quadruped than 

 that of a bird ; which are succeeded by others not unlike the mew- 

 ing of a cat, but considerably hoarser. All these are uttered with 

 great vehemence, in such different keys, and with such peculiar mo- 

 dulations of voice, as sometimes to seem at a considerable distance 

 and instantly as if just beside you; now on this hand, now on that; 

 so that from these manoeuvres of ventriloquism you are utterly at 

 a loss to ascertain from what particular spot or quarter they pro- 

 ceed. If the weather be mild and serene, with clear moonlight, he 

 continues gabbling in the same strange dialect, with very little in- 

 termission, during the whole night, as if disputing with his own 

 echoes ; but probably with a design of inviting the passing females 

 to his retreat; for when the season is farther advanced they are sel- 

 dom heard during the night. 



About the middle of May they begin to build. Their nest is 

 usually fixed in the upper part of a bramble bush, in an almost im- 

 penetrable thicket; sometimes in a thick vine or small cedar; sel- 

 dom more than four or five feet from the ground. It is composed 

 outwardly of dry leaves, within these are laid thin strips of the 

 bark of grape-vines, and the inside is lined with fibrous roots of 

 plants, and fine dry grass. The female lays four eggs, slightly flesh- 

 colored, and speckled all over with spots of brown or dull red. The 

 young are hatched in twelve days ; and make their first excursion 

 from the nest about the second week in June. A friend of mine, 

 an amateur in Canary birds, placed one of the Chat^s eggs under 

 a hen Canary, who brought it out; but it died on the second day; 

 tho she was so solicitous to feed and preserve it, that her own eggs. 



