BIRDS OF MINNESOTA 409 



Now, I am conscious of, and credited with having, a very 

 critical ear for sound and melody of all sorts of descriptions; 

 and I do not hesitate to say that for clearness, sweetness, 

 richness of tone, and inexpressible variety of modulation, from 

 piano to forte in volume, he is peerless among American birds. 

 But I thought myself perfectly acquainted with the Catbird 

 for at least twenty -five years before I was permitted to know 

 his full powers of song, and then by the accident of an early 

 ride through his most favored haunts while the female was 

 sitting on her eggs. The famous Brown Thrush can be heard 

 further, and I have once detected as many as twenty-two differ- 

 ent modifications in a single outpouring of his melodies, yet 

 the other excels him in everything except his volume of sound. 

 Wilson is "away off" in his descriptions and interpretations of 

 this unique songster. There is indisputably a bitter prejudice 

 against the Catbird, originating in his disfavor among farm • 

 ers, or perhaps I should say gardeners, and unfortunately 

 aggravated by the harshness of his ordinary call and caution 

 note, to which I must add the infelicity of his vernacular 

 name. "There is a great deal in the name." They continue 

 their songs in the early morning, sometimes until after sun- 

 rise, and at sunset in the evening, during the entire summer 

 except in a brief period of moulting following the period of 

 nidification. 



They build their nests about the 20th of May, unless the sea- 

 son is exceptionally late, although I have found pairs doing so 

 as late as the first week in June occasionally. They are lo- 

 cated in bushes, and generally about five feet from the ground, 

 The platform consisting of sticks and twigs. Upon this sub- 

 structure, firmly secured, rests the somewhat bulky nest proper 

 consisting of bark, twigs, leaves and straws or dried grass, and 

 lined with hairs and fibrous roots, sometimes with fine grass. 

 It is deeply hollowed. There are usually four, occasionally 

 five eggs of a deep emerald-green of a very symmetrical ovate 

 form. The Catbird may thankfully rest on the generous 

 verdict of his true friend Dr. Coues as to his merits and demer- 

 its, as given in his Birds of the Colorado Valley, pages 56-60. I 

 cannot refrain from repeating a few of the closing paragraphs 

 in his amusing defence of this bird. "Explain him as we may, 

 the Catbird is inseperable from home and homely things. He 

 reflects as he is reflected in domestic life. The associations, it 

 is true, are of an humble sort, but they are just as strong as 

 those which link us with the trusty Robin, the social Swallow, 



