JoNKS — On ]>irus op Cedar Point. 175 



232. Dumetella caiolinensis. — Catbird. 



Common all summer in bushy situations. It is a familiar bird 

 ill door-yards if the back lot's furnish suitable breeding places. In 

 the borders of woods it seems to prefer to nest in hawthorn trees. 

 It is one of the most familiar birds about the, Lake Laboratory, and 

 all along the sand spit, where it nests in great numbers. The me- 

 dian date of arrival is April 27. The latest fall record is October 

 It'.. 1905. The most of the birds have gone south by the tirst week 

 in October. It seems strange that there are still persons who regard 

 the Catbird as a witch, and who destroy its nest and young on 

 every opportunity. Unlike the P.rown Thrasher, this bird prefers 

 the seclusion of a tangle from which to sing. In my opinion its 

 ventrilO(iuil j towers have been a good deal overstated. It has some 

 powers of mimiiiy, Imt it also has its own song pattern, to which it 

 is inclined to adhere pretty closely. 



233. Toxostoma rufuni. — Bruwn Thrasher. 



Far less common than the ((receding species, except during the 

 spring migration along the sand spit, when it is usually almost 

 abundant. Its proper setting in this region is an osage orange 

 hedge-row. at least during the nesting season. It also freciuents 

 brushy woods and neglected fence rows. Along the sand spit it 

 's pretty closely confined to the bushes, nesting about the Lake La 

 boratory. The median date of arrival is April 11, but there arc 

 four March records, the earliest being March 22, 1902 and 1904. 

 One individual remained in Oberlin all winter 1906-7. The latest 

 fall date is October 16, 1905. It has not seemed to I)e present along 

 the sand spit with the advent of fall weather, much to my surprise. 

 Its spring arrival is heralded -by a burst of song, which the birtl 

 pours forth from the topmost point of an osage orange plant. In 

 snowy weather it retires to the brush and becomes silent. Nests 

 are most numerous in the osage orange hedge-rows, but the birds 

 occasionally build elsewhere. One pair successfully reared a brood 

 of five in the midst of a brush heap in a hog pasture, in 19<i9. 



234. Thryothoruf^ hidovicianus. — Carolina Wren. 



The first authentic record for this wren is September 6, 1899, at 

 Chance Creek, in the eastern part of the Vermilion quadrangle. 

 Since that time there has been a gradual increase, until today there 

 is no river gorge which does not harbor several pairs. It has been 

 found in winter and spring on the sand spit, particularly about the 

 resort grounds, but also eastward and near the Lake Laboratory. 

 I have found it on East Sister and Pelee Islands, where permanent 

 colonies seem to have been established. It has not vet become nu- 



