302 BIRDS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



numbers, where they employ themselves till October, when 

 they retreat to the southern states. 



The Catbird, Turdus felivox, is strangely persecuted, though 

 he deserves good treatment on account of his services, which 

 are great ; and also on account of his song, which is fine and 

 sweet when he feels secure ; but this is not often ; for he 

 seems fully aware that a bad name has been given him ; and 

 his cat-like meio is an expression of his anxious fears. Beside 

 his own wild snatches of melody, he gives many broken imita- 

 tions of other birds, but never seems sufficiently easy in his 

 mind to finish the strain he has begun. Latham says, that in 

 a domesticated state, the catbird has been taught to imitate 

 the strains of instrumental music ; and that he will counterfeit 

 the cry of young chickens in distress, so as completely to de- 

 ceive the parent hen. His attempts to mock the notes of other 

 birds can be easily detected in listening to his song, and blend- 

 ed in Avith his own original strains, form an anthem so singu- 

 lar, that no one who has the least portion of taste or fancy, can 

 hear it without delight. 



The catbird remains with us from May to October, constant- 

 ly employed in picking off" wasps, worms, grubs, and various 

 insects, and, at the season of fruit, it ventures to claim some 

 little reward for its labors ; not so much however, as would 

 have been consumed by the wasps alone, which it has de- 

 stroyed. It seems surprising, considering how they are treated, 

 and how sensitive they appear to be, that they have not long 

 ago deserted us. But the nervous anxiety which they betray 

 in their voice and motions, is not really owing to anxiety for 

 themselves, so much as to affection for their young. They are 

 quite discriminating in their apprehensions ; the sight of a dog 

 does not disturb them, but a cat throws them into a fever of 

 dread ; and Avhile they are wretched the moment an idle boy 

 enters the garden, they will permit some men to handle the 

 ea;2,s in their nest. 



The nest is in a bush or a vine, composed of twigs, strips of 

 bark, old grass and dry leaves, with a lining of root fibres- 



