SPECIES 8. TURDUS LIVIDUS.

CAT-BIRD.

[Plate XIV.-Fig. 3.]

Muscicapa Carolinensis, LINN. Syst. 328.-Le gobe-mouche brun de Virginie, BRISS. 11, 365.-Cat-bird, CATESB. 1, 66.-LATHAM, 11, 553.—Le moucherolle de Virginie, BUFF. iv, 562.— Lucar lividus, apice nigra, the Cat-bird, or Chicken-bird, BARTRAM, p. 290.-PEALE's Museum, No. 6770.

We have here before us a very common and very numerous species, in this part of the United States; and one as well known to all classes of people, as his favourite briars, or blackberry bushes. In spring or summer, on approaching thickets of brambles, the first salutation you receive is from the Cat-bird; and a stranger, unacquainted with its note, would instantly conclude that some vagrant orphan kitten had got bewildered among the briars, and wanted assistance; so exactly does the call of the bird resemble the voice of that animal. Unsuspicious, and extremely familiar, he seems less apprehensive of man than almost any other of our summer visitants; for whether in the woods, or in the garden, where he frequently builds his nest, he seldom allows you to pass without approaching to pay his respects, in his usual way. This humble familiarity and deference, from a stranger too, who comes to rear his young, and spend the summer with us, ought to entitle him to a full share of our hospitality. Sorry I am, however, to say, that this, in too many instances, is cruelly the reverse. Of this I will speak more particularly in the sequel.

About the twenty-eighth of February the Cat-bird first arrives in the lower parts of Georgia from the south, consequently winters not far distant, probably in Florida. On the second week

in April he usually reaches this part of Pennsylvania; and about the beginning of May has already succeeded in building his nest. The place chosen for this purpose is generally a thicket of briars or brambles, a thorn bush, thick vine, or the fork of a small sapling; no great solicitude is shown for concealment; though few birds appear more interested for the safety of their nest and young. The materials are dry leaves and weeds, small twigs and fine dry grass, the inside is lined with the fine black fibrous roots of some plant. The female lays four, sometimes five eggs, of a uniform greenish blue colour, without any spots. They generally raise two, and sometimes three brood in a

season.

In passing through the woods in summer I have sometimes amused myself with imitating the violent chirping or squeaking of young birds, in order to observe what different species were around me, for such sounds, at such a season in the woods, are no less alarming to the feathered tenants of the bushes than the cry of fire or murder in the streets, is to the inhabitants of a large and populous city. On such occasions of alarm and consternation, the Cat-bird is the first to make his appearance, not singly, but sometimes half a dozen at a time, flying from different quarters to the spot. At this time those who are disposed to play with his feelings may almost throw him into fits, his emotion and agitation are so great, at the distressful cries of what he supposes to be his suffering young. Other birds are variously affected; but none show symptoms of such extreme suffering. He hurries backwards and forwards, with hanging wings and open mouth, calling out louder and faster, and actually screaming with distress, till he appears hoarse with his exertions. He attempts no offensive means; but he bewails, he implores, in the most pathetic terms with which nature has supplied him, and with an agony of feeling which is truly affecting. Every feathered neighbour within hearing hastens to the place to learn the cause of the alarm, peeping about with looks of consternation and sympathy. But their own powerful parental duties and domestic concerns soon oblige each to withdraw. At

any other season, the most perfect imitations have no effect whatever on him.

The Cat-bird will not easily desert its nest. I took two eggs from one which was sitting, and in their place put two of the Brown Thrush, or Thrasher; and took my stand at a convenient distance to see how she would behave. In a minute or two the male made his approaches, stooped down and looked earnestly at the strange eggs; then flew off to his mate, who was not far distant, with whom he seemed to have some conversation, and instantly returning, with the greatest gentleness took out both the Thrasher's eggs, first one and then the other, carried them singly about thirty yards, and dropt them among the bushes. I then returned the two eggs I had taken, and soon after the female resumed her place on the nest as before.

From the nest of another Cat-bird I took two half fledged young, and placed them in that of another which was sitting on five eggs. She soon turned them both out. The place where the nest was, not being far from the ground, they were little injured, and the male observing their helpless situation, began to feed them with great assiduity and tenderness.

I removed the nest of a Cat-bird, which contained four eggs, nearly hatched, from a fox grape vine, and fixed it firmly and carefully in a thicket of briars close by, without injuring its contents. In less than half an hour I returned, and found it again occupied by the female.

The Cat-bird is one of our earliest morning songsters, beginning generally before break of day, and hovering from bush to bush, with great sprightliness, when there is scarce light sufficient to distinguish him. His notes are more remarkable for singularity than for melody. They consist of short imitations of other birds, and other sounds; but his pipe being rather deficient in clearness and strength of tone, his imitations fail where these are requisite. Yet he is not easily discouraged, but seems to study certain passages with great perseverance; uttering them at first low, and as he succeeds, higher and more free; no ways embarrassed by the presence of a spectator even within a few yards of him.

On attentively listening for some time to him one can perceive considerable variety in his performance, in which he seems to introduce all the odd sounds and quaint passages he has been able to collect. Upon the whole, though we cannot arrange him with the grand leaders of our vernal choristers, he well merits a place among the most agreeable general performers.

This bird, as has been before observed, is very numerous in summer, in the middle states. Scarcely a thicket in the country is without its Cat-birds; and were they to fly in flocks, like many other birds, they would darken the air with their numbers. But their migrations are seldom observed, owing to their gradual progress and recession, in spring and autumn, to and from their breeding places. They enter Georgia late in February; and reach New England about the beginning of May. In their migrations they keep pace with the progress of agriculture; and the first settlers in many parts of the Gennessee country have told me, that it was several years after they removed there before the Cat-bird made his appearance among them. With all these amiable qualities to recommend him few people in the country respect the Cat-bird. On the contrary, it is generally the object of dislike; and the boys of the United States entertain the same prejudice and contempt for this bird, its nest and young, as those of Britain do for the Yellow hammer and its nest, eggs and young. I am at a loss to account for this cruel prejudice. Even those by whom it is entertained, can scarcely tell you why; only they "hate Cat-birds;" as some persons tell you they hate Frenchmen, they hate Dutchmen, &c. expressions that bespeak their own narrowness of understanding, and want of liberality. Yet, after ruminating over in my own mind all the probable causes, I think I have at last hit on some of them; the principal of which seems to me to be a certain similarity of taste, and clashing of interest, between the Cat-bird and the farmer. The Cat-bird is fond of large ripe garden strawberries; so is the farmer, for the good price they bring in market. The Cat-bird loves the best and richest early cherries; so does the farmer, for they are sometimes the most pro

VOL. II.-R

fitable of his early fruit. The Cat-bird has a particular partiality for the finest ripe mellow pears; and these are also particular favourites with the farmer. But the Cat-bird has frequently the advantage of the farmer by snatching off the first-fruits of these delicious productions; and the farmer takes revenge by shooting him down with his gun, as he finds old hats, wind-mills and scarecrows are no impediments in his way to these forbidden fruits; and nothing but this resource, the ultimatum of farmers as well as kings, can restrain his visits. The boys are now set to watch the cherry trees with the gun; and thus commences a train of prejudices and antipathies that commonly continue through life. Perhaps too, the common note of the Cat-bird, so like the mewing of the animal whose name it bears, and who itself sustains no small share of prejudice, the homeliness of his plumage, and even his familiarity, so proverbially known to beget contempt, may also contribute to this mean, illiberal and pesecuting prejudice; but with the generous and the good, the lovers of nature and of rural charms, the confidence which this familiar bird places in man by building in his garden, under his eye, the music of his song, and the interesting playfulness of his manners, will always be more than a recompence for all the little stolen morsels he snatches.

The Cat-bird measures nine inches in length; at a small distance he appears nearly black; but on a closer examination is of a deep slate colour above, lightest on the edges of the primaries, and of a considerably lighter slate colour below, except the under tail coverts, which are very dark red; the tail, which is rounded, and upper part of the head, as well as the legs and bill, are black. The female differs little in colour from the male. Latham takes notice of a bird exactly resembling this, being found at Kamtschatka; only it wanted the red under the tail: probably it might have been a young bird, in which the red is scarcely observable.

This bird has been very improperly classed among the FlyCatchers. As he never seizes his prey on wing, has none of their manners, feeds principally on fruit, and seems to differ so little