CHAPTER XXI. 



May 14 May 20. 



THE CATBIRD. 



Order Passeres. Suborder Oscines. 



Family Troglodytidse. Subfamily Miminse. 



Genus Galeoscoptes. Species Galeoscoptes carolinensis. 



Length 8.00 to 9.35 ; wing, 3.45 to 3.75 ; tail, 3.70 to 4.25. 



Migration North, March; south, October. 



"He sits on a branch of yon blossoming bush, 



This madcap cousin of robin and thrush, 



And sings without ceasing the whole morning long; 



Now wild, now tender, the wayward song 



That flows from his soft, gray, fluttering throat; 



But often he stops in his sweetest note, 



And shaking a flower from the blossoming bough, 



Drawls out, 'mi-eu, mi-ow!'" 



The catbird gets its common name from its well known 

 note, "mi-eu, mi-ow," which it drawls out like a half-grown 

 kitten. Formerly it was classed with the fly-catchers. Alex- 

 ander Wilson changed it to the thrushes. In doing so he says, 

 "As he never seizes his prey on wing, has none of their man- 

 ners, feeds principally on fruit, and seems to differ so little 

 from the thrushes, I think he more properly belongs to the 

 latter tribe than to any other genus we have. His bill, legs 

 and feet, place and mode of building, the color of the eggs, his 

 imitative notes, food and general manners, all justify me in re- 

 moving him to the genus." Coues in his Key to North Ameri- 



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