THE CATBIRD. 225 



various ferns. Thus the nest is grayish outside and silken- 

 white, or delicate reddish, inside. The walls are thick and 

 firm, and the lining is as soft and delicate a couch as any 

 birdling ever pillowed its head upon. The eggs, some four 

 in number, about .67 X. 50, are generally grayish or greenish- 

 white, pretty heavily spotted, sometimes blotched with 

 brown and lilac, and are very variable. Though the nest is 

 generally built by the last of May, there is but one brood 

 raised in this locality, and the birds leave us for the south 

 in September. 



As an exception to the whole genus, D. astiva has no white 

 markings in the tail, except that the quills of the outer tail- 

 feathers are white. The young being for some time with- 

 out the red markings beneath, Audubon at first made them a 

 separate species, which he called "the Children's Warbler." 



This bird shows special ingenuity in building out the 

 Cow-bird's egg, sometimes making even a three-story nest 

 for that purpose; although it is not, as was supposed by the 

 earlier ornithologists, the only bird resorting to this expe- 

 dient, the Redstart, Phcebe, etc., discovering the same 

 contrivance. Covering all North America to the arctics, 

 and even reaching South America in winter, this abundant 

 species is especially characteristic of our continent. 



THE CATBIRD. 



On the last day of April, as I paddle my canoe along the 

 still waters of Tonawanda, I spy a Catbird (Mimus caroli- 

 nensis) in the bushes near the stream. Only 9 inches long^ 

 of a plain dark drab or ash, excepting the black crown and 

 the bright chestnut of the under tail-coverts, and keeping low 

 among the thick shrubbery, this bird is now by no means con- 

 spicuous.* As it approaches nidification, about the last of May, 



* I once saw in the possession of Professor W. E. D. Scott, of Princeton, a Catbird which 

 was as white as a white rabbit. 



15 



