MICIirOAN BIRD LIF]']. 



301. Catbird. Dumetella carolinensis (Linn.). (704) 



Synonyms: Cat Flycatcher, Slatc-colorcd Mockingbird. — Miiscicapa carolinensis, 

 Linn., 1766. — Tardus carolinensis, Licht., 1823. — Miniiis carolinensis, Jardine and most 

 of the older writers. — Gale;)scoj)tes carolinensis. Cab., 1<S5(), P>aird, 1S64, A. (). U. Check- 

 list, 1886, and most snbseiiuent authors. — Orpheus carolinensis. And., 1839. 



Figure 144- 



General color slate, darker above, lighter below, the whole top of the 

 head black, as is also the tail; under tail-coverts deep chestnut. 



Distribution. — Eastern United States and British Provinces, west to 

 and including the Rocky Mountains; occasional on the Pacific coast from 

 British Columbia south to central California. Breeds from the Gulf 



Fig. 144. (': 



From Yearbook of Department of AKriculturc, 18'.)5. 

 Courtesy of Biological Survey. 



States northward to the Saskatchewan. Winters in the southern states, 

 Cuba, and Central America to Panama. 



The Catbird is too well known to need careful description, being one 

 of our most familiar birds throughout the greater part of the state. It 

 enters our borders from the south usually in April, occasionally as early 

 as the 10th, but more often between the 20th and the 30th, and has been 

 recorded a few times as early as April 4 (Wood, Ann Arbor). It soon 

 spreads over the whole of the Lower Peninsula and extends sparingly 

 into the Upper Peninsula, where the writer found it here and there along 

 the south shore of Lake Superior in the summer of 1903. It has also 

 been recorded fi-om ^larquette, Mackinac, Chippewa, Iron, Dickinson, 

 Delta and Ontonagon counties, though not reported alnmdant in any of 

 these. A single specimen was taken on Isle Royale, September 12, 1905, 

 by the University of Michigan Expedition (Peet, Adams' Rep., Mich. 



