THE MOCKINGBIRD FAMILY 



541 



Today, however, we care less for caging song birds 

 for we have learned to attract them and hold them about 

 our gardens by means of food and nesting places and 

 protection from their enemies, so that cages are no ionger 

 necessary. Almost anywhere in the South, even in the 

 heart of cities, if one has an extensive garden one can 

 hope to have a pair of mockingbirds. He need only 

 plant a suitable thicket for the nest, keep the cats away 

 and put out plenty of food. In winter and early spring 

 they are fond of suet, doughnut crumbs, pieces of bread 

 and a few seeds, and later on of mulberries and other 

 small fruits such as are borne on the dogwood, wild 

 cherry, etc. Surely no garden in the South should be 

 without its mockingbird. 



There are over sixty species in the mockingbird fam- 

 ily, only eleven of which are found north of Mexico. 

 One of these is the true mockingbird, one is the cat- 

 bird and the rest are called thrashers. The catbird re- 

 sembles the mockingbird in being a long, slender, gray 

 bird, but it differs in being darker and in not having the 

 white bars in the wings and tail. Its only marks are 

 a black cap, black tail and reddish-brown under-tail 

 coverts. It gets the name "caf'bird from the harsh, 

 catlike notes with which it scolds every intruder and 

 with which it ruins an otherwise melodious song. Some 

 catbirds are much better singers than others, many learn- 

 ing to imitate the notes of other birds with almost mock- 

 ingbird skill, but all of them, sooner or later, interrupt 

 their musical refrain with harsh mewing notes. 



Catbirds are either very sympathetic to the troubles 



A HUNGRY CATBIRD 



When the catbird returns in the spring it can usually find plenty of insects 

 to maintain its irrepressible energy. At times, however, a little suet is 

 appreciated and it will come quite frequently to a feeding station. 



A WELL PROTECTED HOME 



The nest of a mocking bird in a yucca. All members of the mocking bird 

 family nest in dense bushes or thickets where they are safe from most 

 enemies. 



of all the bird world or very inquisitive, for whenever 

 a bird is in distress and gives an alarm cry all of the 

 catbirds of the neighborhood assemble to stare and to 

 scold at the disturber. In the defense of their own nests 

 they are seldom excelled for bravery, for be it cat, 

 squirrel, snake or man, the intrepid birds bristle out 

 their feathers and fly at the enemy with loud cries, peck- 

 ing with their bills and buffeting with their wings in 

 the attempt to divert attention from their treasures. 

 Often they fall prey to sly cats which by stealthy leaps 

 are able to reach them, but usually they slip out of reach 

 into the thick vegetation, for the catbird always nests 

 in the densest thicket, thorny bush or tangle of vines 

 that the neighborhood supports. The nest resembles 

 that of the mockingbird, but the eggs are deep greenish- 

 blue without spots. 



In parks and gardens where thickets do not exist 

 the catbird is not to be found, for unlike some birds 

 such as the phoebe, robin, barn swallow and swift that 

 have come to associate with man, the catbird is always 

 unable to adapt itself to changed conditions. A few 

 years ago the author pointed out the difference between 

 the catbird and the phoebe in this respect. 



The phoebe formerly nested only on the face of cliffs, 

 but with the advent of man and his bridges and build- 

 ings, it has modified its nesting habits to avail itself of 

 these conditions and now builds wherever there is a ledge 

 to support and another to shelter the nest. The catbird, 

 on the other hand, has never changed and probably never 

 will. That the two birds have a fundamentally different 



