Dec. 1888.] 
AND 00 
Nesting of the Yellow-breasted Chat 
in 1888 near Raleigh, N. C. 
BY C. S. BRIMLEY. 
In this locality these birds nest chiefly in 
thickets and briar patches, and less often in 
scattering bushes on hillsides. The nest is 
composed of grass or weed stems, the bottom 
being almost entirely of dead leaves, and the 
whole is lined with fine grass, never with 
horsehair or feathers. 
The nest is placed in a suitable bush, briar 
patch or bunch of reeds from two to six feet 
from the ground, the usual height being about 
three feet. The birds commenced to lay May 
16th and the last nest was found June 25, con- 
taining a full set of 4. Early in the season the 
set is almost invariably four, later on sets of 
three begin to appear, and late in June, three are 
more often found than four. Considering the 
abundance of the species, comparatively few 
nests are found; a briar patch containing 
several pairs often fail to reveal a single nest to 
the most diligent search. The nests that are 
found are always in such easy places to find 
that o & e ^de^^^^ findiu^many more. 
( 2 - & 
16. Icteria virens. Yellow-breasted Chat. 
A set of eggs collected in Missouri on May 
20 contained two eggs of the Cowbird. 
O.& O. XIV* Sept. 1SS0 p 134 
A Philadelphia Collection of Eggs of 
the Mniotiltidae. 
Icteria virens. Yellow-breasted Chat. One 
set of five, fifty-three sets of four, nine sets of 
three. Total : sixty-three sets. 
O &O. XIII. Dec. 1888 P.178 
Eggs! in Bat- 0 ,S. Brimley 
! Yellow-breasted Chat. Standard set, four. 
I Variation, three to four. Per cent of variation : 
I 33 1-3. 
Q.&O, 13 , Ootjl880« p,I40 
Strange nesting habits of a pair of Chats.— I think the follow- 
ing extracts from a letter lately received from Mr. C. W. Beckham of 
Washington. D. C., may be of interest to the readers of the Bulletin. The 
locality is near Ilchester, Howard Co., Maryland. 
“About the first week in May, 1876. a pair of Chats [ Icteria virens ] 
began building in a Wren box attached to one of the pillars of the south 
piazza which partly fronts towards a small ravine. They seemed to be 
very little disturbed by the occasional presence of members of the family, 
but appeared to be considerably annoyed by the belligerent attentions of 
a pair of Wrens {Troglodytes aedori) who had taken up their quarters in 
another box on an adjacent pillar, and who were inclined to be very quar- 
relsome with their strange neighbors. 
“ They — the Chats — had been at work nearly a week, when a violent 
wind-storm blew the box down and thus rudely upset their domestic plans. 
The box was replaced in hopes that they would try it again, but their per- 
severance was not equal to the occasion, and they never returned. In view 
of the generally shy and secretive nature of the Chat, this incident of 
abnormal nidification seems rather curious.” — Charles F. Batchelder, 
Cambridge , Mass. Bull. N. O.O* Q, .April* 1881, 1 //3 
