d dangling
my legs, coming down into the thicket by odd jerks and motions.

It really is so funny that I burst out laughing myself, saying,
_chatter-chatter, chat-chat-chat-chat!_ I change my tune sometimes, and
it sounds like _who who_, and _tea-boy_.

You must be cautious though, if you want to see me go through my
performance. Even when I am doing those funny things in the air I have
an eye out for my enemies. Should I see you I would hide myself in the
bushes and as long as you were in sight I would be angry and say _chut,
chut!_ as cross as could be.

Have I any other name?

Yes, I am called the Yellow Mockingbird. But that name belongs to
another. His picture was in the June number of BIRDS, so you know
something about him. They say I imitate other birds as he does. But I
do more than that. I can throw my voice in one place, while I am in
another.

It is a great trick, and I get lots of sport out of it.

Do you know what that trick is called? If not, ask your papa. It is such
a long word I am afraid to use it.

About my nest?

Oh, yes, I am coming to that. I arrive in this country about May 1, and
leave for the south in the winter. My nest is nothing to boast of;
rather big, made of leaves, bark, and dead twigs, and lined with fine
grasses and fibrous roots. My mate lays eggs, white in color, and our
little ones are, like their papa, very handsome.

[Illustration: From col. F. M. Woodruff.
CHICAGO COLORTYPE CO.
YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT.
Copyrighted by
Nature Study Pub. Co., 1897, Chicago.]

THE YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT.

A common name for this bird, the largest of the warblers, is the Yellow
Mockingbird. It is found in the eastern United States, north to the
Connecticut Valley and Great Lakes; west to the border of the Great
Plains; and in winter in eastern Mexico and Guatemala. It frequents the
borders of thickets, briar patches, or wherever there is a low, dense
growth of bushes--the thornier and more impenetrable the better.

"After an acquaintance of many years," says Frank M. Chapman, "I frankly
confess that the character of the Yellow-Crested Chat is a mystery to
me. While listening to his strange medley and watching his peculiar
actions, we are certainly justified in calling him eccentric, but that
there is a method in his madness no one who studies him can doubt."

By many observers this bird is dubbed clown or harlequin, so