the next quite out of sight. Should you have a dog, which will enter its
briary retreat, it will skip about him, scold him, and frequently perch,
or rise on wing above the thicket, so that you may easily shoot it.
The arrival of the females is marked by the redoubled exertions of
the males, who now sing as if delirious with the pleasurable sensations
they experience. Before ten days have elapsed, the pairs begin to construct
their nest, which is placed in any sort of bush or briar, seldom
more than six feet from the ground, and frequently not above two or
three. It is large, and composed externally of dry leaves, small sticks,
stripes of vine bark and grasses, the interior being formed of fibrous roots
and horse-hair. The eggs are four or five, of a light flesh colour, spotted
with reddish-brown. In Louisiana and the Carolinas, these birds
have two broods in the season ; but in Pennsylvania, where they seldom
lay before the 20th of May, they have only one brood. The eggs are
hatched in twelve days. The male is seldom heard to sing after the
breeding season, and they all depart from the Union by the middle of
September. Their eggs and young are frequently destroyed by snakes,
and a species of insect that feeds on carrion, and burrows in the ground
under night. The young resemble the females, and do not acquire the
richness of the spring plumage while in the Union.
The food of the Yellow-breasted Chat consists of coleopterous insects
and small fruits. They are especially fond of the wild strawberries so
abundant in the Kentucky barrens.
When migrating they move from bush to bush by day, and frequently
continue their march by night, especially should the moon be out and
the weather pleasant. Their flight is short and irregular at all times.
When alighted, they frequently jerk their tail, squat, and spring on their
legs, and are always in a state of great activity. I never observed them
chasing insects on the wing.
I have presented you with several figures of this singular species, to
shew you their positions when on the wing performing their antics in
the love season as well as when alighted. The wild rose branch with
the nest, was cut out of a thicket for the purpose which you see accomplished.
Y E L L O W - B R E A S T E D CHAT. 225
ICTERIA VIRIDIS, Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 6 9 .
YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT, PITRA POLYGLOTTA, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. i. p. 90.
pL 6. fig. 2.
YELLOW-BREASTED ICTERIA, ICTERIA VIRIDIS, Nuttall, Manual, part i. p. 299.
Adult Male. Plate CXXXVII. Fig. 1, 1.
Bill of moderate length, strong, slightly arched, broad at the base,
compressed towards the end; upper mandible with the sides convex, the
edges acute, destitute of notch, the tip acute, and a little declinate ; lower
mandible with the dorsal line nearly straight, the edge line slightly arched
and inflected. Nostrils rounded, half covered by a vaulted membrane.
The form is rather robust. Legs of moderate length, slender; tarsus
compressed, anteriorly scutellate, sharp behind ; two lateral toes nearly
equal, the hind one not much stouter; claws small, compressed, acute.
Plumage blended. Wings of moderate length, rounded; third and
fourth primaries longest, second almost equal, first a little shorter. Tail
longish, rounded. Feathers of the throat and breast with a silky gloss.
Bill black, the base of lower mandible blue. Iris hazel. Feet greyish
blue. The general colour of the upper parts is deep olive-green; the
inner webs of the tail-feathers and quills, and the ends of the latter, duskybrown.
A line over the eye, a small streak under it, and a spot at the base
of the lower mandible, white. Lore black. Throat and breast bright
yellow, abdomen and under tail-coverts white.
Length 7 inches, extent of wings 9 ; bill along the ridge T
6
g , along
the edge T
9
g ; tarsus
Adult Female. Plate CXXXVII. Fig. % 2.
The Female scarcely differs from the male in any perceptible degree,
and is of the same size.
THE SWEET BRIAR.
ROSA RUBIGIXOSA ?—ICOSANDBIA POLYGYRIA, Linn. ROSACEA, JUSS.
The Sweet Briar is very generally distributed in the United States.
I have found it from Louisiana to the extremities of Nova Scotia along
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