474 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



birds, frequently taking up its abode under the very windows of the farm- 

 house, and, wherever it is protected, seems to prefer the vicinity of human 

 habitation, frequently nesting in the barberry bushes and other shrubbery 

 of lawns in the midst of our cities and villages. It is never found in the 

 depths of the forest but prefers clearings and the thickets at the edges of 



woodlands, the hedgerows and 

 shrubbery on the edges of 

 streams and gully s, and the 

 edges of pasture land. Though 

 constantly seen and heard, it 

 seldom ventures far from the 

 protecting coverts of the 

 thicket and does not seek so 

 elevated a perch while deliv- 

 ering its song as is the cus- 

 tom with the Brown thrasher. 

 This song of the Catbird 

 seems to me, at its best, not 

 quite equal to that of the 

 Brown thrasher, just as the 

 Thrasher scarcely equals the 

 best performance of the Mock- 

 ingbird. Nevertheless, he is 

 a famous songster. If he 

 would only omit the scolding 

 notes and catlike " meows," 

 which are frequently inter- 

 spersed with his rarest notes, he would be one of our favorite song birds. 

 The Catbird's nest is placed only a few feet from the ground in some 

 dense shrub or vine and is rather a bulky affair, the exterior composed of 

 long sticks and straws, and the inner nest carefully woven of reddish brown 

 rootlets. The eggs are from 3 to 5 in number, usually 4, of a deep bluish 



Catbird at nest 



Photo by James H. Miller 



