_Turdus virens_, LINN. Syst. Nat. 10th ed. 1758, 171, no. 16 (based
on _Œnanthe americana_, _pectore luteo_, Yellow-breasted Chat,
CATESBY, Carol. I, tab. 50). _Icteria virens_, BAIRD, Rev. Am. B.
1864, 228. _Muscicapa viridis_, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 936.
_Icteria viridis_, BON.; AUD. Orn. Biog. II, pl. cxxxvii.—BAIRD,
Birds N. Am. 1858, 248. _Icteria dumecola_, VIEILL. _Pipra
polyglotta_, WILS. _? Icteria velasquezi_, BON. P. Z. S. 1837, 117
(Mexico).—SCLATER & SALV. Ibis, I, 1859, 12 (Guatemala).
Localities quoted: _Costa Rica_, CABAN. _Orizaba_ (winter), SUM.
_Yucatan_, LAWR.
SP. CHAR. Third and fourth quills longest; second and fifth little
shorter; first nearly equal to the sixth. Tail graduated. Upper parts
uniform olive-green; under parts, including the inside of wing,
gamboge-yellow as far as nearly half-way from the point of the bill to
the tip of the tail; rest of under parts white, tinged with brown on
the sides; the outer side of the tibiæ plumbeous; a slight tinge of
orange across the breast. Forehead and sides of the head ash, the
lores and region below the eye blackish. A white stripe from the
nostrils over the eye and involving the upper eyelid; a patch on the
lower lid, and a short stripe from the side of the lower mandible, and
running to a point opposite the hinder border of the eye, white. Bill
black; feet brown. Female like the male, but smaller; the markings
indistinct; the lower mandible not pure black. Length, 7.40; wing,
3.25; tail, 3.30. Nest in thickets, near the ground. Eggs white,
spotted with reddish.
_Hab._ Eastern United States, west to Arkansas; rare north of
Pennsylvania; south to Eastern Mexico and Guatemala. Not noticed in
West Indies.
[Illustration: _Icteria virens._]
Both sexes in winter apparently have the base of lower mandible
light-colored, the olive more brown, the sides and crissum with a
strong ochraceous tinge. It is this plumage that has been recognized
as _I. velasquezi_.
HABITS. The Yellow-breasted Chat is found throughout the Eastern
United States, from Massachusetts to Florida, and as far to the west
as Fort Riley and Eastern Kansas. Mr. Say met with it among the Rocky
Mountains as far north as the sources of the Arkansas. It is not very
rare in Massachusetts, but a few breed in that State as far north as
Lynn. It has been found in Mexico and Guatemala, but not, so far as I
am aware, in the West Indies.
Probably no one of our birds has more distinctly marked or greater
peculiarities of voice, manners, and habits than this very singular
bird. It is somewhat terrestrial in its life, frequenting tangled
thickets of vines, briers, and brambles, and keeping itself very
carefully concealed. It is noisy and vociferous, constantly changing
its position and moving from place to place.
It is not abundant north of Pennsylvania, where it arrives early in
May and leaves the last of August. The males are said always to arrive
three or four days before their mates.
This species is described by Wilson as very much attached to certain
localities where they have once taken up their residence, appearing
very jealous, and offended at the least intrusion. They scold
vehemently at every one who approaches or even passes by their places
of retreat, giving utterance to a great variety of odd and uncouth
sounds. Wilson states that these sounds may be easily imitated, so as
to deceive the bird itself, and to draw it after one; the bird
following repeating its cries, but never permitting itself to be seen.
Such responses he describes as constant and rapid, and strongly
expressive both of anger and anxiety, their voice, as it shifts,
unseen, from place to place, seeming to be more like that of a spirit
than a bird. These sounds Wilson compares to the whistling of the
wings of a duck, being repetitions of short notes, beginning loud and
rapid, and falling lower and lower. Again a succession of other notes,
said to closely resemble the barking of young puppies, is followed by
a variety of hollow, guttural sounds, each eight or ten times
repeated, at times resembling the mewing of a cat, only hoarser,—all
of these, as he states, uttered with great vehemence, in different
keys and with peculiar modulations, now as if at a considerable
distance, and the next moment as if close by your side; so that, by
these tricks of ventriloquism, one is utterly at a loss to ascertain
from what particular quarter they proceed. In mild weather this
strange melody of sounds is kept up throughout the night during the
first of the pairing-season, but ceases as soon as incubation
commences.
They construct their nest about the middle of May. These are placed
within a few feet of the ground, in the midst of low brambles, vines,
and bushes, generally in a tangled thicket. They build a rude but
strongly woven nest, the outer portions more loosely made of dry
leaves; within these are interwoven thin strips of the bark of the
wild grape, fibrous roots, and fine dry grasses.
The eggs, four or five in number, are usually hatched out within
twelve days, and in about as many more the young are ready to leave
their nest.
While the female is sitting, and still more after the young are
hatched, the cries of the male are loud and incessant when his nest is
approached. He no longer seeks to conceal himself, but rises in the
air, his legs dangling in a peculiar manner, ascending and descending
in sudden jerks that betray his great irritation.
The food of this bird consists chiefly of beetles and other insects,
and of different kinds of berries and small fruit, and it said to be
especially fond of wild strawberries.
Audubon states that in their migrations they move from bush to bush by
day, and frequently continue their march by night. Their flight at all
times is short and irregular. He also states that when on the ground
they squat, jerk their tails, spring on their legs, and are ever in a
state of great activity. Although the existence of this bird north of
Pennsylvania is generally disputed, I have no doubt that it has always
been, and still is, a constant visitor of Massachusetts, and has been
found to within a score of miles of the New Hampshire line. Among my
notes I find that a nest was found in Brookline, in 1852, by Mr.
Theodore Lyman; in Danvers, by Mr. Byron Goodale; in Lynn, by Messrs.
Vickary and Welch; and in many other parts of the State. It certainly
breeds as far south as Georgia on the coast, and in Louisiana and
Texas in the southwest. On the Pacific coast it is replaced by the
long-tailed variety, _longicauda_.
A nest of this species from Concord, Mass., obtained by Mr. B. P.
Mann, and now in the collection of the Boston Natural History Society,
has a diameter of four inches and a height of three and a half. The
cavity has a depth of two and a quarter inches, and is two and a half
wide. This is built upon a base of coarse skeleton leaves, and is made
of coarse sedges, dried grasses, and stems of plants, and lined with
long, dry, and wiry stems of plants, resembling pine-needles. Another
from Pomfret, Conn., obtained by Mr. Sessions, is a much larger nest,
measuring five inches in diameter and three and three quarters in
height. The cup is two and a half inches deep by three in width. It is
made of an interweaving of leaves, bark of the grapevine, and stems of
plants, and is lined with fine, long wiry stems and pine-needles.
Their eggs are of a slightly rounded oval shape, vary in length from
.85 to .95 of an inch, and in breadth from .65 to .70. They have a
white ground with a very slight tinge of yellow, and are marked with
reddish-brown and a few fainter purplish and lilac spots.
Icteria virens, var. longicauda, LAWR.