A Winter Cat-Bird. 



1 T is not down in the books. Dr. Warren's " Birds 

 of Pennsylvania," even, does not mention it; and 

 the learned ornithologists of elsewhere pronounce 

 it a myth. But there are those who have seen it, 

 nevertheless, and not merely once but often ; have 

 seen lively, healthy, chattering cat-birds in mid- 

 winter, strong enough of wing to have migrated 

 had they so desired. Occasionally there is but 

 one, more frequently there are two, and scarcely 

 less often four or five together, as though a family 

 had elected to remain, even if they must brave a 

 typical old-style winter. Had they known about 

 it, many a migratory bird might have stayed over 

 from autumn until spring, a year ago. There was 

 no dearth of green grass then, nor of active insect 

 life, even in January ; but not so now : to-day the 

 river is a broad field of ice, and scarcely a leaf 

 b 2* 17 



