364 
PASSERIFORMES 
6S3. American Chat. la fauvette 
The largest and one of the least warbler-like 
green; lores black bordered above and below 
Figure 455 
Chat; natural size. 
polyolotte. Icteria virens. L, 7-44. 
of its family. All upperparts and cheeks 
with white "(Figure 455); throat to breast 
bright clear yellow; underparts white; bill 
comparatively shorter and stouter than 
that of any other warbler. 
Distinctions. Size is sufficient to dis- 
tinguish the Chat at all times, but its 
colours are equally characteristic. Some- 
what like a particularly light female or 
autumn Scarlet Tanager, but note strong 
facial marks. 
Field Marks. Large size, bright 
yellow foreparts, and black lores bordered 
above and below with white make strik- 
ing 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. (See discussion under Carolina Wren, page 320.) 
SUBSPECIES. Two subspecies of the Chat are recognized in Canada. The eastern 
or Yellow-breasted Chat (la Fauvette polyglotte de 1’Est) Icteria virens virens is the 
Ontario form. The Long-tailed Chat (la Fauvette polyglotte de I’Ouest) Icteria virens 
longicanda 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 pro- 
nounced. The distinctions, however, are too fine and too inconsistent 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. Its language at times will not stand translating — - 
not for nothing is the interior of its mouth black! 
Flycatching Warblers 
The genera Wilsonia and Setophaga are rather small, lightly built 
warblers with bills slightly flattened and furnished with fine, projecting 
bristles about the gape (Figure 456). 
684. Hooded Warbler, la fauvette 1 capuchon. Wilsonia citrina. L, 5-67. 
Male: green above and bright yellow below; entire head and neck black with a bright 
yellow mask similar in shape to the black one of the Maryland Yellow-throat (Figure 
Figure 456 
Bill of Flycatching 
Warblers. 
Figure 457 
Hooded Warbler (male;; 
natural size. 
