Of the Icteriinte our fauna contains but a single genus and species, the yellow-breasted chat (Icteria virens), isolated in structure and standing quite apart from the other warblers; and in manners equally unique. The length is about seven and one-half inches, the color clear olive-green above; the throat, breast and sides bright rich yellow; the belly, superciliary and maxillary stnpes and a spot below the eye, white; the cheeks and lores black and the bill blue-black. The form is stout and the wings much shorter than the tail. In two subspecies the yellow-breasted chat inhabits the entire United States except the northern tier. It is locally abundant, living in tangled thickets on wartn hillsides and sheltered valleys, and build ing a loose but pretty nest of leaves, plant stems, strips of bark and grass in the thickest patches of briers, often in association with many of its fellows. The eggs, which are about an inch long by four-fifths of an inch in diam eter, are usually three or four in number, vari ously spotted and blotched with brown and lilac. The chats are among the most remarkable of our songsters, but have no definite song,.pro ducing a constant succession of extraordinary sounds with much force and expression. Some are clear whistles endlessly modulated and com bined, some are hoarse guttural notes, some sharp, coughing sounds, some cat-like mews, some are original, others imitated, but all are vttered with a vehemence and abandon that is quite inimitable. Few birds surpass the chat in imitative or ventriloquistic powers and few combine their nuptial song, which is heard both by night and day, with sucli a series of gro tesque aerial antics.
The warblers of Europe belong to the family Sylviidcs, related to the thrushes and by many ornithologists combined with these and other birds in the family Turdidtv used in a wide sense. The Sylviidce have the bill of moderate
length and slender form, broad at the base and tapering toward the extremity. The tip of the upper mandible is curved downwards, and is slightly notched. The wings are elongated with 10 pnmaries and the tail has often only 10 quills, the tarsi long and slender. The family includes a variety of sub-families and a large number of genera, presenting quite as variecl an array of structures and habits as do the Mniotiltidcr and quite as difficult to classify. All are small insectivorous and mostly plaia colored birds. They are especially characteric tic of Eurasia, though some breed in Australia, New Zealand and the Polyneidaa Islands.
Regulus and Phyllopneustes inhabit North America. To this group belongs the genus Sylvia, represented by such fortns as the white throat (Sylvia undata), garden warbler (S. hortensis), chiff-chaff (S. rufa), and other equally notable species elsewhere described.
Besides an Asiatic species (Phyllopneustes borealis) which extends its breeding range into Alaska the only North American representa tives of this very extensive family are four spe cies of Regulus, diminutive little birds known as lcinglets (q.v.). The dainty little gnatcatch ers (q.v.), of which three species are North American, and which with their allies form the family Polioptilidx, are very closely related to the Sy/viidte. Some of the flycatching Musci capidce are called warblers in Australia.
Consult Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, (North American Birds' (1874); C,oues, (Key to North American Birds> (Boston 1903); Ridgway, (Birds of North and Middle Atnerica' (Wash ington 1902); Wilson, (American Ornithology' (Philadelphia 1814); Jones, (Songs of the Warblers' (Oberlin 1900) ; Dresser, (Birds of Europe' (London 1881); Chapman, (Warblers of North America' (New York 1907).