"Please, Doctor, does he sometimes fly right up in the air to sing a little bit and then go back into the bushes as if he had changed his mind ?" "Yes, Rap, that is one of the Yellow-throat's habits in late summer, but one that very few people notice." The Maryland Yellow-throat Length about five and a half inches.
Upper parts olive-green, in the male with a black mask reaching along each side of the head, and behind this an ashy-white border; but the female wears no mask.
Under parts bright yellow, growing white on belly.
A Summer Citizen of the United States from Georgia to Canada.
When he lives west of the Mississippi River he is called the Western Yellow-throat.
A Tree Trapper and occasionally a Sky Sweeper; a beautiful and familiar bird of the brush and tangles.
THE YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT "The Chat, besides being a very handsome bird, is a ventriloquist and a great joker." "Please, Uncle Roy, what is a ventroquist ?" asked Dodo.
"I should have remembered not to use such a long word," laughed the Doctor.

"A ven-tril-o-quist is a person who can not only imitate sounds, but makes it seem as if they came from his stomach, or even in a different direction from where he is himself.

The Mockingbird can imitate many sounds, but all these come directly from the bird; while the Chat can perch on a twig above your head and give a whistle that seems to come from a bush across the road.
"This is what enables him to play tricks on birds, House People, and various other animals.

He will whistle until he has set a dog tearing through the bushes to find his supposed master.

Another time he will give such a soft strange series of notes that a bird-lover will immediately begin to search through a tangle of briers, after what he imagines to be a strange bird.