CATBIRD 321 



Outram Bangs and Thomas S. Bradlee (1901) described the smaller 

 Bermuda birds, which have narrow and shorter tail feathers and 

 primaries as hermudianus^ but this species was never accepted by the 

 A. O. U. committee on nomenclature. 



It is ahnost universally known as the catbird, but in the south this 

 recognized singer and mimic is sometimes locally called the black 

 mockingbird, and in Bermuda where there are no resident Icteridae 

 the natives have named it the blackbird. The name catbird though 

 a misnomer is destined to remain. It probably originated from 

 some casual listener who gave ear only to the short, grating, catlike 

 call and did not hear or was not impressed by its pleasing and varied 

 song. As a boy the name prejudiced me against this bird until I 

 learned to know its true worth and the high place among our native 

 birds it now holds in my estimation. 



Though modestly colored the catbird is exquisitely tailored and 

 always presents a trim appearance. He is intelligent and friendly 

 and possesses a lively and restless temperament, ever ready to be help- 

 ful to others of its kind in trouble of any sort, often coming to the aid 

 of distracted parents in the defense of their homes and little ones. 

 He is very playful, full of droll pranks and quaint performances. He 

 is also an accomplished singer as well as a mimic and possesses many 

 other admirable qualities that endear him to the bird lover who has 

 learned to know his interesting personality. 



Sp^'ing. — In Florida the catbird is an abundant migrant, but it is 

 also a fairly common winter resident and a few breed in the central 

 and northern parts of the State. According to A. H. Howell (1932) , 

 the spring migration begins very early, as indicated by the record of 

 25 catbirds seen flying north at Sombrero Key on the night of January 

 26. Two others were seen there on January 28. However, the major- 

 ity of the migrants pass through the State about the middle of April, 

 with belated stragglers migrating as late as the first two weeks of May. 

 In Alabama the catbirds appear as migrants at various parts of the 

 State from April 6 to April 19. Likewise in Louisiana and Texas the 

 mass of catbird migrants passes through during the first weeks of 

 April. They reach Pennsylvania and Ohio about April 27. At Cape 

 May, N. J., the average date of 18 years of first arrival records made 

 by Witmer Stone ( 1937) is April 25. The average date of first arrivals 

 at Minneapolis, Minn. (T. S. Roberts, 1932), is May 5, the earliest 

 April 27, 1921. In New York, New England, and southern Canada 

 the catbirds may be expected the first week of May. 



In general the great bulk of migrants arrive about a week after the 

 first birds of the season are seen. The migratory wave of catbirds re- 

 quires about a month in traveling from the southern part of the United 

 States to the northern and western section of their nesting range. 



The spring migration northward is regular, and the date of arrival 



