THRUSH. 



799 



perhaps within reach of him, but whose notes he 

 exactly imitates. Even birds themselves are fre- 

 quently imposed on by his admirable music, and are 

 decoyed by the fancied calls of their mates, or dive 

 with precipitation, into the depth of thickets, at the 

 scream of what they suppose to be the sparrow-hawk." 

 " In his domesticated state, when he commences his 

 career of song, it is impossible to stand by unin- 

 terested. He whistles for the dog ; Caesar starts up, 

 wags his tail, and runs to meet his master. He 

 squeaks out like a hurt chicken, and the hen hurries 

 about, with hanging wings and bristled feathers, 

 clucking to protect its injured brood. The barking 

 of the dog, the mewing of the cat, the creaking of a 

 passing wheelbarrow, follow with great truth and 

 rapidity. He repeats the tune taught him by his 

 master, though of considerable length, fully and 

 faithfully. He runs over the quaverings of the 

 canary, and the clear whistling of the Virginia night- 

 ing-ale, or red bird, with such superior execution and 

 effect, that the mortified songsters feel their own 

 inferiority, and become altogether silent, while he 

 seems to triumph in their defeat by redoubling his 

 exertions." 



The bird is not only thus varied, superior, and free 

 in the performance of his music during the day, but, 

 when the proper circumstances stimulate him to the 

 task (or rather the pleasure), he is to the full as 

 ready to pour his song in the ear of night not that 

 he sings darkly, or " in shadiest covert hid," but he 

 is as vigilant in the night as the day ; and the instant 

 that the rising moon begins to make its appearance, 

 the bird breaks forth into song ; and he is perhaps 

 the only feathered thing in the woods that specially 

 welcomes the queen of heaven with a song. He 

 does this in domestication as well as in a state of na- 

 ture ; for, if his cage is so placed as that he even sees 

 the rising moon, he begins to sing to it the moment 

 that it makes its appearance. These birds are of 

 course in great request among the keepers of cage- 

 birds ; and they can not only be reared from the 

 nest, but they will breed in confinement only, the 

 breeding of them is attended with a very considerable 

 degree of trouble, though they appear to be much 

 more hardy birds than the finer species of the 

 warblers. 



It appears that this interesting thrush, which is 

 not persecuted like, some others, is becoming less 

 numerous, and more of a summer visitant in the 

 central states of the American union, in proportion as 

 those states become more thickly peopled and more 

 extensively cultivated. This does not seem to arise 

 from any dislike which the birds have to the neigh- 

 bourhood of man ; for, as has been noticed, they will 

 build in the immediate vicinity of houses. There 

 seems to be some change of the climate, a hotter 

 summer and colder winter probably, and a less pro- 

 ductive state of the country on the average of the 

 year. Something of the same kind is found in the 

 inferiority of the crops ; and it would not be difficult 

 to find an adequate cause, were that not foreign to 

 our subject. 



The mocking thrush is about nine inches and a 

 half long, and thirteen inches in the extent of the 

 wings ; but Wilson says that the birds of the second 

 brood are smaller, that is, continue smaller in their 

 maturity than the birds of the first brood. The upper 

 parts are clear light grey immediately after the moult, 

 but change to brownish ash colour; the quill and 



tail-feathers are black ; the first and second rows of 

 the wing-coverts have white tips ; in some males the 

 coverts of all the primaries are white, and in others 

 they are brown ; the bases of some of the primaries 

 are white as far as the coverts extend ; the tail is 

 wedge-shaped at its termination, and has the lateral 

 feathers white, and white tips to all the rest except 

 the two middle ones ; the chin is white ; the cheeks, 

 sides of the neck, and all the under parts, brownish 

 white ; the bill black above and whitish on the under 

 part ; the legs and feet black, and stoutly made. 

 The young birds have the under part spotted ; but 

 in the old ones the colour, though differing in dif- 

 ferent individuals, is entire. There is very little 

 external distinction between the male bird and the 

 female when they are mature. 



THE CAT BIRD (T. llvidus). This is another 

 American species, and an interesting one as well as 

 the mocking bird, though its interest is of a very dif- 

 ferent character. It is a summer migrant, and moves 

 about the same time as the mocking bird, but it ia 

 much more common, and is on the increase on the 

 cultivated grounds, while the numbers of the other 

 are diminishing. They winter, in the greater part of 

 their numbers at least, in the southern parts of the 

 States, and very soon after the dead of the year they 

 are in motion. In Georgia they make their appear- 

 ance in spring, and are gradually later and later, as 

 the places to which they come are more northerly, 

 till they reach the northern states, about the middle 

 or the end of May. After their arrival they soon 

 begin the labours of the year, the nest being placed 

 in bushes, thickets, and trees, but not very carefully 

 concealed. It is formed externally with coarse vege- 

 table matters, and lined with finer fibres. The eggs 

 are four, or sometimes five, of a greenish blue, with- 

 out spots ; and there are generally two, and some- 

 times three, hatches in the course of the season. 



The cat-bird is nine inches in length ; the upper 

 parts are dark slate-black, and the under parts rather 

 a paler shade of the same colour ; the vent-feathers 

 and under coverts of the tail are very dark red ; the 

 tail-feathers, the crown of the head, and the bill, are 

 deep black. 



The reason why this species gets the vernacular 

 name of "cat-bird" is not any resemblance which 

 the bird has to a cat either in its appearance or its 

 habits, but wholly on account of the sound of its cry. 

 " In spring and summer," says Wilson, " on ap- 

 proaching thickets of brambles, the first salutation you 

 receive is from a cat-bird ; and a stranger, unac- 

 quainted with its note, would instantly conclude that 

 some migrant orphan kitten had got bewildered 

 among the briars, and wanted assistance, so exactly 

 does the call of the bird resemble the cry of that 

 animal. Unsuspicious, and extremely familiar, he 

 seems less apprehensive of man than almost any 

 other of our summer visitants ; for, whether in the 

 woods or in the garden, where he frequently builds 

 his nest, he seldom allows yon to pass without 

 approaching to pay his respects in his usual way." 

 This bird is very common in most parts of the 

 United States, so much so, that there is hardly a 

 bush or thicket, or close array of small trees in a 

 garden or orchard, which is without its cat-birds. 

 They follow the steps of civilisation, for there are no 

 cat-birds observable in the western settlements ; when 

 these are first taken possession of all is wilderness ; 

 but when they have been brought to even a mode- 



