OF THE UNITED STATES 345 



Some time in May these birds build in the thick undergrowth, 

 near the ground, a light and tasteful nest. They usually lay four 

 eggs of a creamy white color, speckled all over with fine light 

 brown spots. Considerable variation is seen, both in form and 

 color of these eggs, and I have found specimens that were nearly 

 round in contour, and the markings very sparse. 



Early last June, near Washington, in a low dogwood bush 

 that grew in the thickest kind of a bramble, I discovered one of 

 these nests containing five young. The former was a very pretty 

 structure, and rested most lightly upon the slender twigs of the 

 chosen bush. In a few days I succeeded in making an excellent 

 photograph of it, at a time it contained two young, ready to leave 

 the place of their birth. This has been reproduced to illustrate 

 the present account, and it gives an excellent idea of the nest 

 of this species. 



The young are a dull olive green all over, being lighter and 

 ashy beneath, and the nest I found to be outwardly composed of 

 a layer of very dry dead leaves, followed by a layer of dry grasses 

 and very slender slivers of grapevine bark, to be finally lined 

 with tender, hair-like straws of various kinds. In form it is semi- 

 globular, and quite deep. Contrary to the report usually made 

 by ornithologists, the old birds made no particular disturbance 

 while the examination was being made of either the nest or their 

 young, but simply flipped about from bush to bush, uttering now 

 and then a low, angry, chuckling note. 



Often I have found these nests in the smilax vines, or black- 

 berry, or even in a low cedar tree, but never above ten feet from 

 the ground. This is quite in keeping with the habits of the bird, 

 for he is essentially a thicket lover, and it is only through some 

 chance that he is ever seen in the forest or out afield, neither of 

 which haunts are normally frequented by him. 



Passing to another family of the passerine birds, namely, the 

 family Troglodytidw, we find a group, in so far as this country 

 is concerned, containing the Wrens, the Thrashers, the Mocking- 

 birds, and the Catbird, and of all of these forms none are more 

 deserving of our study and regard than the often-neglected and 

 abused Catbirds. Now Alexander Wilson was a very close ob- 

 server of birds, and at the time when he wrote, our feathered fa- 

 vorites in this country had no equal as a describer of their habits 

 and their characters. In my opinion, the description of the Cat- 

 bird given us by this most charming of ornithological writers is 



