The Catbird 329 



bery and the tangle of damp thickets, and it takes a prominent place in the 

 wild-bird chorus. The Catbird is by no means restricted to the garden shrub- 

 bery, but is equally at home down in the vegetable-patch, among the grape- 

 arbors, in the blackberry briars, bordering the orchard, or down the lane 

 that leads to the spring-house; and, as you stroll along the old sunken road 

 in the early evening, one or more Catbirds are constantly in attendance, 

 darting along the rails of the decaying snake fence or perching for a moment 

 on the top of one of the uprights, ever full of interest in your movements. 



Out in the spring-head swamp, too, bordered with blackberry bushes and 

 wild plums, and overgrown with alders, spice-wood, and fox grapes, we find 

 Catbirds. As we penetrate the shady interior, bending below the green canopy 

 and springing from tussock to tussock, we meet with the familiar protesting 

 cry, the same apparent inquisitiveness to know what we are up to, and in among 

 the dense tangle of grape-vine and green brier, we may find the nest as securely 

 placed as in the garden shrubbery. Once, I remember, while exploring the 

 swamp, I made a little squeaking noise with my lips placed against the back 

 of the hand, such as is often employed to attract birds, and in a moment I 

 had a small mob of excited Catbirds all around me, more than I supposed 

 could possibly be within hearing. Indeed, these swampy thickets probably 

 harbor more Catbirds than any other location, notwithstanding the fact that 

 in my mind the bird is more intimately associated with the dooryard of the 

 farmhouse. Indeed, the swampy thickets and bushy borders of streams 

 were probably the original home of the Catbirds before the advent of man, 

 and it is in the spring-head swamp that I usually hear them first, and here, too, 

 at the height of the breeding season, that we get their song at its best. 



In autumn they lose much of their individuality, mingling with other birds 

 which at that season form loose, irregular flocks, shifting from place to place, 

 scouring the thickets and low trees for berries and seeds of all sorts. 



The Catbird's summer range extends across the continent east of the 

 Rocky Mountains, while it occurs also in parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, 

 and British Columbia. From southern Manitoba, central Ontario, and southern 

 Quebec, it ranges nearly to the Gulf coast, and is found also in Bermuda. 

 It winters from our southern states to the Bahamas and Cuba, and through 

 Mexico to Panama. Occasionally, as far north as New Jersey and southern 

 Pennsylvania, or even New England, we come across an isolated Catbird that 

 is wintering north of his usual range, located in some sheltering woodland 

 tangle of greenbrier, or among the dense growth of bayberry bushes on the 

 coast. Here he manages to subsist on such berries as the autumnal migrants 

 have passed by, or upon the stray insects that are coaxed forth on the mild 

 days of winter by the warmth of the mid-day sun. 



At Philadelphia, the first Catbird arrives in the spring between April 

 15 and 24, and they are generally distributed by the 29th. In the autumn, 

 the last one has usually departed by the middle of October. 



