e
shrubbery dropped not a note of his heavenly melody.

"They have heard it before; it must be a chat," I said; and lo! on the
top twig of a tall tree, brilliant in the setting sun, stood the singer.
Never before had I seen one of the family show himself freely; and while
I gazed he proceeded to exhibit another phase of chat manners, new to
me,--wing antics, of which I had read. He flew out toward another
tree-top, going very slowly, with his legs hanging awkwardly straight
down. At every beat of the wings he threw them up over his back till
they seemed to meet, jerked his expressive tail downward, and uttered a
harsh "chack," almost pausing as he did so. "Not only a chat, but a
character," was my verdict, as I turned back from my stroll.

[Sidenote: _AN ECCENTRIC BIRD._]

For several years I had been trying to know the most eccentric bird in
North America,--the yellow-breasted chat. Two or three times I had been
able to study him a little, but never with satisfaction, and I was
charmed to discover one of his kind so near the pleasant old family
mansion in which I had established myself for the summer. This house,
which had been grand in its day, but, like the whole place, was now
tottering with age, was an ideal spot for a bird-lover, being
delightfully neglected and gone to seed. Berry patches run wild offered
fascinating sites for nests; moss-covered apple-trees supplied dead
branches for perching; great elms and chestnuts, pines and poplars,
scattered over the grounds, untrimmed and untrained, presented something
to suit all tastes; and above all, there existed no nice care-taker to
disturb the paradise into which Mother Nature had turned it for her
darlings.

It was a month later than this before I discovered where the chat and
his mate, the image of himself, had taken up their abode for the
season, and then I was drawn by his calls to another old tangle of
blackberry bramble at the upper edge of the orchard. "Quoik!" he began,
very low, and then quickly added, "Whe-up! ch'k! ch'k! toot! toot! too!
t-t-t-t-t!" concluding with a very good imitation of a watchman's
rattle. I hastened toward the spot, and was again treated to that most
absurd wing performance, followed by an exhibition of himself in plain
sight, and then a circling around my head, till, tired of pranks or
satisfied with his survey, he dropped out of sight in the bushes.

Here, I said to myself, is a chat of an unfamiliar sort; just as
eccentric