334 



INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 



answered to my whistle in the garden, was very silent 

 during the period of incubation, and expressed great anxi- 

 ety and complaint on my approaching the young after their 

 leaving the nest. According to Latham, the Cat-bird is 

 also capable of imitating the variable airs of instrumental 

 music, and will sometimes mimic the cry of chickens so 

 as to deceive and distress the hen that attends them. 



One of the most remarkable propensities of the Cat- 

 bird, and to which it owes its name, is the unpleasant, 

 loud, and grating cat-like mnv {'puy, 'pay, 'p^^y), which it 

 often utters, on being approached or offended. As the 

 irritation increases, this note becomes more hoarse, reit- 

 erated, and vehement ; and sometimes this petulance 

 and anger are carried so far, as to persecute every intru- 

 der who approaches the premises. This temper often pre- 

 vails after the young are fledged, and though originating, 

 no doubt, in parental anxiety, it sometimes appears to 

 outlive that season, and occasionally becomes such an 

 annoyance, that a revengeful and fatal blow from a 

 Gtick or stone, is but too often, with the thoughtless and 

 prejudiced, the reward of this harmless and capricious 

 provocation. At such times, with little apparent cause, 

 the agitation of the bird is excessive, she hurries backward 

 and forward, with hanging wings, and open mouth, mew- 

 ing and screaming in a paroxysm of scolding anger, and 

 alighting almost to peck the very hand that offers the 

 insult. To touch a twig or branch in any part of the gar- 

 den or wood is often amply sufficient to call down the 

 amusing termagant. This harmless excess, and simula- 

 tion of grimalkin's tone, that wizard animal, so much 

 disliked by many, are unfortunate associations in the cry 

 of the C«^-bird ; and thus coupled with an ill name, this 

 delightful and familiar songster, who seeks out the very 

 society of man, and reposes an unmerited confidence in 



