YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT
Icteria virens virens. [Case 8], Fig. 49
A large bird, superficially, quite unlike the true Warblers but nevertheless agreeing with them in essential structure. L. 7½.
Range. Nests from Texas and northern Florida to southern Minnesota and (locally) Massachusetts; winters in the tropics.
Washington, common S.R., Apl. 16-Sept. 28. Ossining, common S.R., Apl. 28-Aug. 29. Cambridge, rather rare and irregular S.R., May 15-Sept. N. Ohio, common S.R., May 1-Sept. 15. Glen Ellyn, local, not common. May 10-Aug. 16. SE. Minn., rare S.R. (?).
If the Chat lived in England what a wealth of lore, legend, and literature would owe its origin to his strange ways and stranger notes! Here he is known to few but the initiated, who find an endless interest in his odd song-medley and peculiar antics. Go yourself to the brush-grown, thickety wood borders and clearings he loves and let him be his own interpreter. You may even find his nest low down in some crotch with its white, evenly speckled eggs, and hear his angry chŭt as he resents your presence.
HOODED WARBLER
Wilsonia citrina. [Case 8], Figs. 54, 55
The yellow face and black 'hood' distinguishes the male, but both sexes may be known by the large amount of white in the outer tail-feathers. L. 5¾.
Range. Nests from Georgia and Louisiana north to Michigan and Connecticut; winters in the tropics.
Washington, locally common, S.R., Apl. 19-Oct. 1. Ossining, rare S.R., to Sept. 1. N. Ohio, rare. May 8, 9, 12 and 22.
Color, song, habit and temperament combine to make the Hooded Warbler one of the most attractive members of its family. As one sees it flitting from bush to bush in woodland undergrowth, displaying its white outer tail-feathers as it flies, pausing now and again to utter its simple, sweet whistled song, one is impressed not only by its beauty but by its gentleness. It nests in a bush within a foot or two of the ground, laying 3-5 white eggs, wreathed with shades of brown spots, early in May, in the South, in June, in the North.