152 NATURAL HISTORY. 
be interesting to notice, but I will speak of only two or 
three more. The Catbird, so familiar to us, is a beauti- 
ful smger, but when provoked or alarmed, utters a disa- 
greeable mewing sound, from which it gets its name. 
The Brown Thrush, or Thrasher, is a songster of great ~ 
sweetness and compass. So also is the European Black- 
dird. This must not be confounded with our common 
American Blackbird, which belongs to the Crow family. 
252. The family of Fly-catchers is comparatively a 
small one in regard to the number of its species, but it 
is quite widely diffused. They derive their name from 
their skill in catching insects as they fiy. For this pur- 
pose the bill is quite broad at the base, so that when the 
mandibles are separated, the mouth presents a wide 
opening. In this respect they approach the division of 
Fissirostres, § 236. Like them, also, they have bristles 
about the mouth at the sides; and their legs are small 
and weak, as they are mostly on the wing. The most 
prominent of this family in this country is the Kingbird, 
one of the most bold and brave of all birds. Its dispo- 
sition to drive off all other birds from the neighborhood 
of its nest, and keep sole possession of what it considers 
its own domains, has given this bird its name. It will 
attack even such large birds as Crows, Hawks, and 
Eagles, mounting above them, and darting down upon 
their backs, and by this continual annoyance will succeed 
in driving them off. It will sometimes pursue one of 
these birds a long distance, over a mile, and then return 
to the neighborhood of its nest with the proud air of a 
conqueror, uttering rapidly its shrill and triumphant 
notes. I have sometimes been amused with the boldness 
of this bird in flying in quick darts close to my head as 
I approached the tree where it had built its nest. Some 
of the birds manage, by agility or some cunning expe- 
dient, to escape the attacks of this tyrant. “I have 
seen,” says Wilson, “the Red-headed Woodpecker, while 
clinging on the rail of a fence, amuse himself with the 
