THE FOREST 187 



note, dick dick^ he often imitates perfectly, more 

 rarely his song, the wood thrush, veer}', l)r()\vn 

 thrasher, goldfinch, flicker, bob-white and greater 

 yellow-legs. The call of this large wader, the 

 grand chevalier with the legs yellow, as the 

 French Canadians say, was so perfectly imitated 

 that I was not undeceived until I saw the catbird, 

 who changed his note on my intrusion to mews. 



The catbird appears to be constantly impro- 

 vising and practicing new combinations in the 

 process of which he frequently strikes a false 

 or harsh note. While the brown thrasher avoids 

 these mistakes and regularly repeats each note or 

 phrase, the catbird indulges in repetition only 

 when a phrase happens to tickle his fancy. Thus 

 a bird heard from my cot sang a pleasing and 

 musical phrase that sounded like Fctcr-boro, and 

 repeated it five or six times. After this he 

 mewed to show that he was not too idealistic 

 nor stuck up, and then tried another musical 

 combination. Do not disdain to listen to the cat- 

 bird on account of his name in the same toolish 

 way that people decline to eat dogfish on account 

 of its name. There is unfortunately a great deal 



