NATURE STUDY. 
pubeished’under the auspices of the 
Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences. 
You. II. February, 1902. No. 9. 
A Feathered Basket Weaver. 
BY EDGAR D. CASS. 
A brief visit to Connecticut this past season promised 
me an opportunity to become familiar with the yellow 
breasted chat. From the time I began the study of birds 
to the present moment I have felt more than a passing wish 
to behold in his native haunts this brilliant representative 
of the Warbler coterie. Fate, however, has thus far de¬ 
creed otherwise, for a hunt high and low during the fort-, 
night I was there, failed to disclose his presence. 
Strangely enough, my desire for an acquaintance with 
the chat so absorbed my attention that I never thought of 
meeting the orchard oriole (Icterus spurious). Perhaps 
the secret charm that makes bird study so fascinating lies 
in the fact that we are constantly meeting the unexpected. 
You hunt for the yellow-breasted chat, in a locality that 
he ought to frequent, and failing in this, discover a family 
of orchard orioles within fifty feet of the veranda where 
you have been reading. At least, this was my experi¬ 
ence. 
The first morning after I arrived in Westbrook, I heard 
