328 
resents intrusion. The usual song of the Yellow-throat is one of the 
characteristic sounds of the damp meadows. It has been poetically trans- 
lated as “ Witchery — witchery — witchery,” which gives a close approximation 
to it. 
However, like many species of wide distribution, it seems subject to 
having local dialects just as the human language does. These are some- 
times so different from what he has been accustomed to as to occasionally 
puzzle the observer who is perfectly familiar with the notes in other 
localities. 
Chat ob Brush Warbler 
The genus Icteria, composed of a single species, is the most un-warbler- 
like of the Warblers. The specific description following is sufficient diagnosis 
for the genus. 
683. Yellow-breasted Chat (Including Long-tailed Chat). Icteria virens. L, 
7*44. The largest and one of the least warbler-like of its family. All upperparts and 
cheeks green; lores black bordered above and below with white (Figure 300); throat to 
breast bright clear yellow; underparts white; bill comparatively shorter and stouter 
than that of any other Warbler. 
Figure 300 
Chat; natural size. 
Distinctions. Size is sufficient to distinguish the Chat at all times, but its colours 
are equally characteristic. 
Field Marks. Large size, bright yellow foreparts, and black lores bordered above 
and below with white make striking field marks. 
Nesting. In a crotch near the ground in rather bulky nest of coarse grasses, leaves, 
and strips of bark lined with finer grasses. 
Distribution. United States. In Canada, the most southern parts of Ontario, close 
along the International Boundary in southwestern Saskatchewan, and the warm interior 
valleys of southern British Columbia. 
SUBSPECIES. Two subspecies of the Chat are recognized in Canada. The Eastern 
or Short-tailed Chat Icteria virens virens is the Ontario form. The Long-tailed Chat 
Icteria virens longicauda has the tail averaging slightly longer, and shows some slight 
colour differences, especially in the white stripe from base of the lower mandible being 
larger and more pronounced. The distinctions, however, are too fine and too inconstant 
for general popular recognition. This latter, however, is the race to which our western 
birds should be referred. 
The Chat, though rare in Canada, is a most interesting bird. It is the 
spirit of the tangled thickets and brushy wastes and like a spirit it comes 
and goes unseen, but not unheard. It laughs and cackles, whistles, and 
mocks. Full of insatiable curiosity, part clown and largely a gossip and 
a meddler, it hides in the tangled undergrowth to tell the intruder just 
what it thinks of him. 
