THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 295 



one pair were present in 1882. A colony still existed on Sandy Hook 

 at least to 1892, though it suffered severely in the blizzard of 1888. 



Mr. Henry Hales states that a pair bred near Ridge wood in 1884, 

 and one bird was seen in November, 1902. 1 



On August 27th, 1891, I secured a single bird at Cape May Point, 

 and Mr. W. L. Baily got a young one in Juvenal plumage in 1895 at 

 Holly Beach. In August, 1897, Mr. Baily saw an adult at Cape May, 

 one at Ocean View, March 30th, 1901, and another at Wildwood, De- 

 cember 27th, 1903. Mr. D. N. McCadden saw two at Stone Harbor, 

 September 4th, 1903, and Miss C. Murphy reported one at Point 

 Pleasant throughout the winter of 1902-3. 



At Beach Haven Mr. I. N. DeHaven saw one during the summer of 

 1906, and Mr. John Lewis Childs records a pair at Barnegat all sum- 

 mer in 1900. 2 



Professor A. H. Philipps secured a young one near Princeton some 

 years ago. 3 



704 Dumetella carolinensis (Linnaeus). , , 



Catbird. 



PLATE 76. 



Adults. Length, 8-9.25. Wing, 3.60. Above and below, slate-gray, paler 

 beneath ; entire top of head as well as tail, black ; under tail-coverts, chestnut. 

 Female sometimes with the black a little duller. 



Young in first summer. Dull gray, indistinctly mottled with brown edgings 

 below, and lacking the black cap ; under tail-coverts, brownish. 



Nest of leaves, twigs and grass and occasionally pieces of paper, in thickets; 

 eggs, three to five, deep greenish-blue, .95 x .70. 



Common summer resident. Arrives April 21st (April 29th), de- 

 parts October 18th. 



Equally at home in the swampy thickets or in the shrubbery of the 

 garden, the Catbird is familiar to all. The gray dress and the irri- 

 tating, complaining cry serve to identify him. 



His song is a medley of notes similar to that of the Thrasher, but 

 more subdued, and usually given from the very middle of some dense 

 clump of bushes. 



1 Bird Lore, 1904, p. 134. 



- Auk, 1900, p. 390. 



: Birds of Princeton, p. 77. 



