CATBIRD. 173 



he has the stage to himself, for he is one of our few birds 

 who sing regularly and freely during the night, moonht 

 nights being most often selected. 



The Chat is a rather southern bird in its distribution, 

 being found north of Connecticut only locally and rarely. 

 It winters in the tropics, coming to us about May 1 and 

 departing early in September. Its well-made nest of 

 grasses, leaves, and strips of bark is generally placed in 

 the crotch of a saphng within three feet of the ground. 

 Its three to five eggs are white, rather evenly speckled 

 and spotted with reddish brown. 



Thrashers, Wrens, etc. (Family Troglodytid^.) 



The Eastern representatives of this family are appar- 

 ently too unlike to be classed in the same group, but when 

 all the two hundred members of the family are studied, it 

 is evident that the extremes are connected by intermedi- 

 ate species possessing in a degree the characters of both 

 Wrens and Thrashers. 



The Catbird belongs to the subfamily Mimince, which 

 contains also the Mockingbirds and Thrashers, number- 

 Catbird ^S some fifty species, all being re- 

 Gaieoscopus strictcd to Nortli America. 



The Catbird is one of the most 

 familiar feathered inhabitants of the denser shrubbery 

 about our lawns and gardens. The sexes are alike in 

 color, both being slaty gray, with a black cap and tail, 

 and brick-red under tail-coverts. They arrive from the 

 South about April 29, and remain until October. Their 

 nest is usually placed in thickets, shrubbery, or heavily 

 foliaged trees, and the deep greenish blue eggs are laid 

 the fourth week in May. 



It is unfortunate that the Catbird's name should have 

 originated in his call-note rather than in his song. The 



