52 TWENTIETH CENTUET CLASSICS 



contained an unhatched egg, the contents of which had long 

 since dried away. Probably they represented the homes 

 successively occupied during the two preceding seasons, 

 and it is hence likely that this species, like so many others, 

 returns year after year to breed in nearly the same spot." 

 Eggs five to nine, .60X.48; white to creamy white, 

 speckled and spotted with reddish brown, chiefly about the 

 larger end; in form, oval. 



V. CATBIRD. 



Galeoscoptes carolinensis (LiNN.). 



Summer resident; abundant in the eastern part of the 

 State ; not uncommon in the western portion. Begin lay- 

 ing about the middle of May; the bulk leave about the 

 last of September ; a few remaining late in November. 



HABITAT. Eastern North America; north in the in- 

 terior to about latitude 54 ; west to the western base of 

 the Rocky Mountains ; breeding throughout its United 

 States range and northward ; wintering from the Indian 

 Territory and the Carolinas southward, through eastern 

 Mexico, to southern Central America. 



Iris dark brown ; bill, legs, feet and claws black ; legs 

 and feet sometimes brownish black. 



Miss Florence A. Merriam, in <: Birds through an 

 Opera Glass," describes the habits and actions of this 

 eccentric and well-known bird, in so life-like and happy a 

 manner, that I take pleasure in copying the same: 



" High trees have an unsocial aspect, and so, as Lowell 

 says, ' The Catbird croons in the lilac bush,' in the alders, 

 in a prickly ash copse, a barberry bush, or by the side of 

 the garden. In . Northampton, one of his favorite haunts 



