Plate 243
Havell CXXXVII
Yellow-Breasted Chat
(Icteria virens)
“I have presented you with several figures of this singular species,” Audubon wrote of this painting, done on June 7, 1829, “to show you their positions when on the wing performing their antics in the love season as well as when alighted.” Audubon mentions that he was reproached for placing his birds in outré (excessive) positions such as these—a criticism still leveled at this work, although he himself instructed Havell to delete a bird at the top of this drawing that was a part of the original plate. The chats’ nest is built on a rose branch (possibly Rosa virginiana).
Source: The Original Water-Color Paintings by John James Audubon. Copyright 1966 by American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc.
Learn more about this print on the National Audubon Society's website.