226



THE NESTING OF THE CAT-BIRD.


By the Rev. C. D. Farrar.


For weeks I have been toiling like Cicero in his retirement

at Tusculum. The cause of my toil has been a pair of American

Cat-birds bent upon reproducing their kind. A wise man has

somewhere said “that if you want to know what a man is,

examine his castles in the air.” Here is one of mine, to breed

the American Cat-bird.


Somewhere about the beginning of May my Cat-birds set

about founding a dynasty. I had kept them all the winter in my

bird room, intending, when what Fox once called “ this little

shower” has stopped, to enlarge them out of doors. Apparently

they got tired of waiting for the improbable ; for one day when I

went up to feed them, I was surprised to find Mrs. Cat-bird trying

to build a nest with orange papers I had dropped on the floor

after feeding the Tanagers. A bird, I thought, that will do this

deserves encouragement. Accordingly I went out into the

garden and found a deserted Blackbird’s nest. This I pulled to

pieces and scattered the fragments over the floor. The hint was

not thrown away and Mrs. Cat-bird at once set to work to

construct a really beautiful nest in a bush. Externally it is com¬

posed of dead leaves and stalks of grass, and is smoothly lined

within with the finest fibres. The building operations occupied

about three days and then there was a solemn pause of expecta¬

tion. About the fifth day, on looking casjcally into the nest, I

was delighted to see a beautiful blue egg almost exactly the

colour of that of our own English Hedge-Sparrow, only slightly

larger and rounder in shape.


Two more eggs were laid on successive mornings, making

a total of three in all, and then the hen sat steadily. A difficulty

now presented itself. I had a number of Buntings flying loose

in the room with the Cat-birds, and I knew that if they were

allowed to remain, they would eat a large share of the live bait

intended for the young Cat-birds in fore. This I naturally wished

to prevent. I saw therefore the only thing to do was to catch

up everything but the Cat-birds. This entailed a great risk, as

in catching the other birds I might frighten the Cat-birds ; but if

I left the other birds I should probably starve the young Cat-birds.

I remembered the old saying—of two evils choose the lesser. I

fetched the net and set to work catching. Incredible though it

may seem to my readers, the hen Cat-bird took no notice of all

the row (for you are bound to make a row, catch birds as deftly

as you like) but continued to sit steadily throughout the



