THE CATBIRD 



By WITMER STONE 



^^t il5ational SiQ&omtion of )autiubon feocietifs 



EDUCATIONAL LEAFLET No. 70 



Most of our familiar American birds were named by the early settlers 

 after well-known birds of the Old World to which they seemed to bear some 

 resemblance. Sometimes these hardy pioneers were correct in their ideas of 

 ornithological relationships, but more often they were wrong, and conse- 

 quently we have Flycatchers, Larks, Redstarts, Blackbirds and Warblers, 

 that have no close relationship with similarly named birds of Old England. 

 The Catbird, however, stood forth as a distinctive character of the New World, 

 with no counterj^art in the land across the sea, and, as in many cases of bird 

 christening, they named him after the character of his voice, which recalled 

 to them the mewing of a cat. 



Even in America, the Catbird stands apart in a class by himself, so far as 

 characteristics and color are concerned. We have learned, of course, that he 

 has been named Dumetella carolinensis by the ornithologists, that he is placed 

 in the family Mimidae, and is related to the Mockingbird and Thrashers, but 

 perhaps not so very closely after all. His drab plumage, black cap and tail, 

 and rusty under tail-coverts, at any rate, form a combination of colors not 

 found among other 'Mockers,' nor indeed, in any other North American 

 bird, while the deep blue eggs of the Catbird differ entirely from those of the 

 Mockers and Thrashers, and recall those of the Thrushes, to which family, 

 indeed, it w^ould seem that the Catbird has some kinship. Through the 

 Thrashers, on the other hand, he traces relationship with the Wrens, having 

 the same short, rounded wing and long tail, while his tarsus is composed of 

 distinct plates, and not welded together into a boot, as in the Thrushes. 



Not only is the Catbird's plumage distinctive, but it is not subject to 

 variation. Wherever he is found, he presents the same appearance, and there 

 is no tendency to respond to the climatic conditions prevailing in dififerent 

 parts of the country, and to break up into light and dark races, or large and 

 small forms, as is the case with the Song Sparrow and certain other species. 

 Nor does the Catbird present seasonal or sexual changes in dress, as do many of 

 our birds. The young, in the nestling or 'juvenal' plumage, are perhaps a little 

 darker on the back, and have a slight tendency to dusky mottling on the breast, 

 while the feathers, as in all young birds, are more loosely constructed; but, apart 

 from this. Catbirds — male, female and young, winter or summer — are alike. 



Doctor Coues, I remember, in his classic account of the Catbird, refers 

 to him as distinctly commonplace, and there seems to be something about the 

 bird that deserves this epithet. He is so familiar to everyone, so associated 

 with everyday scenes and occupations, that he seems almost a part of them, 



(327) 



