408 NOTES ON THE 
Family TROGLODY TID. 
GALEOSCOPTES CAROLINENSIS (L.). (704.) 
CATBIRD. 
In aride of fifteen miles to Lake Minnetonka, I have counted 
very nearly one hundred birds of this species in a mornings’ 
hour and a half, many a time in the years gone by. And those 
singly, not exceeding two, or at most three, being in any one 
locality. The males arrive in parties of five or six, (never 
many more), about the 25th of April, and are followed in from 
three to five days by the females similarly associated, after 
which they are constantly seen, but not much heard for nearly 
two weeks, when the sexes begin to be moved towards each 
other by the instincts of reproduction, which arouses the 
highest energies and activities of their natures to a new meas- 
ure of bird life. At that season their harsh calls are heard 
from every thicket along the way, or down by the creek at the 
border of the woods, through all the hours of the lengthening 
days. When the building of the nests begins, the conjugal 
relationships having become settled, a brief period of reticence 
intervenes, during which they are seldom heard but constantly 
seen carrying materials for the construction of the nest. How- 
ever even at this time, the really early riser will hear the 
almost matchless song of the males as they pour it forth from 
the topmost twig of some large bush or sapling. Wilson must 
have been unfortunate in the hours chosen in which to listen 
to its exquisite notes, for he says: ‘‘His notes are more 
remarkable for singularity than for melody. They consist of 
short imitations of other birds, and other sounds; but, his pipe 
being rather deficient in clearness and strength of tone, his 
imitations fail where these are requisite. Yet he is not easily 
discouraged, but seems to study certain passages with greater 
perseverance; uttering them at first low, and as he succeeds, 
higher and more free, nowise embarrassed by the presence of 
a spectator, even within a few yards of him. On attentively 
listening to him for some time, one can perceive considerable 
variety in his performance, in which he seems to introduce all 
the old sounds and quaint passages he has been able to collect. 
Upon the whole, though, we cannot arrange him with the 
grand leaders of our vernal choristers, he well merits a place 
among the most agreeable of general performers.” 
