CATBIRD. 
Catbird The Catbird, from the musical point of 
Galeoscoptes = view, is the northern representative of the 
acch apts a Mockingbird. His song is only remarkable 
L. 8.90 inches 
May 8th for its splendid style; neither in melody 
nor rhythm (excepting its characteristic hesitancy or 
interruption) does it show any adherence to rule. 
The colors of the bird are rather sombre. Top of head 
and tail sooty black; general coloring slate-gray; under 
tail-coverts chestnut, or burnt sienna of a ruddy tone; 
eyes brown. Female similarly colored. Nest built in 
the Y branches of small trees or shrubbery—often the 
lilac and elderberry; it is bulky, loosely woven with 
twigs, roots, grasses, etc., and lined with finer rootlets 
and grasses. Egg deep blue-green, unspotted. 
This bird is common throughout North America; it 
breeds in the eastern United States from the Gulf States 
northward to New Brunswick and the Saskatchewan, 
and winters from Florida southward. 
There is a certain lawless freedom to the song of the 
Catbird which invests it with a character essentially 
wild. The bird does not appear to entertain any regard 
for set rhythm; he proceeds with a series of miscellane- 
ous, interrupted sentences which bear no relationship 
with one another. The fact is, he is an imitator, and 
possibly does not know himself exactly what he is talk- 
ing about, or what impression he will embody in ‘‘ the 
next line.” He can imitate anything from a squeaking 
cart-wheel to the song of a Thrush. He intersperses his 
melodic phrases with quotations from the highest au- 
thorities—Thrush, Song Sparrow, Wren, Oriole, and 
Whip-poor-will! The yowl of the cat is thrown in any- 
where, the guttural remarks of the frog are repeated 
without the slightest deference to good taste or appro- 
priateness, and the harsh squawk of the old hen, or the 
chirp of the lost chicken, is always added in some mal- 
a propos manner. All is grist which comes to the 
Catbird’s musical mill, and all is ground out according 
to the bird’s own way of thinking. 
To set his music on paper in a thoroughly complete 
manner cne would need to write the score of Nature’s 
orchestra, and a correct record of the scope of his voice 
Sil 
