72 
ICTERIA VIRIDIS. 
yet in Maryland and New Jersey, and also in New 
York, I have met with these birds within two hours’ 
walk of the sea, and in some places within less than a 
mile of the shore. I have not been able to trace him 
to any of the West India islands ; though they certainly 
retire to Mexico, Guiana, and Brazil, having myself 
seen skins of these birds in the possession of a French 
gentleman, which were brought from the two latter 
countries. 
European naturalists have differed very much in 
classing this bird. That the judicious Mr Pennant, 
Gmelin, and even Dr Latham, however, should have 
arranged it with the flycatchers, is certainly very 
extraordinary ; 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, 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 j^ellow, which also lines the inside of the 
wings, and spreads on the sides immediately 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, over- 
