CATBIRD 347 



cowbird were incubated by a brown thrasher. There were no eggs 

 of the thrasher. 



Banding and longevity. — Many catbirds have been banded, but with 

 relatively few exceptions the hundreds of returns have been made 

 at or near to the places where they were originally banded. Among 

 some of the exceptions Lincoln (1939) reports a catbird banded at 

 Schoharie, N. Y., on May 24, 1927, that flew into a house at Tela, 

 Honduras, on October 25, 1929. Another catbird banded at North- 

 ville, S. Dak., on September 20, 1936, was killed at Tuxpam, Veracruz, 

 Mexico, about January 1, 1937. 



A number of longevity records of the catbird have been reported. 

 Miss Marion A. Boggs (1935) reports two catbirds banded at her sta- 

 tion at Waynesville, N. C, which were at least 7 years old when last 

 seen. One adult banded July 7, 1924, returned each year until May 

 25, 1930. The other a female banded on July 2, 1926, also returned 

 each year; the last date of trapping was April 22, 1932. A catbird 

 banded at Demarest, N. J., on May 25, 1926, was retrapped at the 

 same place on May 23, 1934, and again on May 8, 1935, a longevity 

 record of 9 years (F. C. Lincoln, 1939). That tlie above records may 

 be unusual is emphasized by the work of Geoffrey Gill (1940), who 

 has presented the analysis of returns of catbirds banded at his station 

 at Huntington, Long Island, N. Y., over a 10-year period. Mr. Gill 

 banded 1,134 catbirds of which 489 were adults, 579 immatures, and 

 66 fledglings. At the time of his report 99 individuals had made a 

 total of 158 returns to his station. Of the 99 birds to return 63 were 

 banded as adults, 35 as immatures, and only 1 as a fledgling. In regard 

 to the longevity of the birds Mr. Gill writes as follows : 



Of the 58 individuals returning which were banded previous to 1936, only 2 

 are known not to be less than 5 years old. Of 75 returning individuals banded 

 previous to 1937, only 15 are known to have lived at least 4 years, while of 86 

 returning birds banded previous to 1938, 36 are known to be at least 3 years old. 



Taking the age of the oldest banded bird recorded at this station and assuming 

 that this age divided by two, would give the average life-span of a catbird, it 

 would place the average at around 2^/^ years. Such a theory is substantiated 

 to a degree by banding records, but, due to the large element of chance in the 

 trapping of wild birds, a large number must be banded and must return to the 

 same traps before any conclusions can be drawn. 



Winter. — There are so many winter records of the catbird that its 

 occurrence in the North during the time of cold weather and snow does 

 not seem unusual. Some of the individuals have been reported as being 

 numbed or stupefied by extremely low temperature, but others seem 

 to live successfully under the adverse conditions of a northern winter. 

 Some of these records have been mentioned under the section pertain- 

 ing to food and need not be repeated here. 



The catbird is a common winter resident in the southern States, but 

 many of them continue on to Central America as far south as Panama. 



