Plate XVII. 



MIMUS GAROLINENSIS-Catbird, 



The Catbird is a resident from April loth to October the 1st. Daring this time they hatch one 

 and sometimes two broods. The first nest is usually completed early in May, though building is often 

 delayed until June. The second set of eggs is deposited in July. 



LOCALITT: 



In the country they build alike in the wildest woods and the most cultivated districts, occupying 

 any bush or tree that is accessible. Thickets along rivers, creeks, canals, and ponds, as well as brier- 

 patches and thick clumps of bushes along" roads and about the outskirts of timber-land, are the most fre- 

 quented localities. In the towns they are nearly as abundant as in the country ; the bushes and low trees 

 of the garden and lawn, together with the shade-trees ot the streets, affording plenty of nesting sites. 



POSITIOX : 



The nest, when situated in a bush, is usually supported beneath and at the sides by a number of 

 stems. Its irregular exterior has numerous projecting sticks, which rest upon the small twigs, and 

 often interlace with them, so that a great degree of security is obtained. Sometimes the materials of 

 the foundation are so interwoven Avith the branches or twigs which sustain it, that it is impossible to 

 remove the nest without tearing it from its supports. The nest, when built in a tree, is either in a 

 horizontal or perpendicular fork formed by limbs Avhich may be three or four inches in diameter, though 

 usually much smaller, and is su2:)ported about the circumference by branches or twigs; oris saddled upon 

 a large limb, or a number of small ones, and otherwise supported as when in a fork. Its distance from 

 the ground when in a bush is commonly about three or four feet, when in a tree it rarely exceeds ten 

 feet, though I have seen one nest in a pear tree over thirty feet high. 



MATERIALS: 



The foundation of the average nest consists of dead twigs of the various trees and weeds in the 

 neighborhood, from a sixteenth to a quarter of an inch in diameter, and often a foot and a half long. 

 The coarsest material is in the first part of the foundation, and as the work progresses smaller and 

 shorter twigs are employed. The superstructure is composed of similar but finer material, together with 

 dried leaves, bark and tendrils of grapevine, and rootlets. Grapevine-bark in long strips is often used 

 in abundance, and so woven and braided together as to form a basket, of considerable strength. The 

 lining is made of light-colored and dark brown or black rootlets, thickly matted together and extending 

 to the rim. About towns and farm-houses, strings, rags, paper, avooI, cotton, feathers and like substances 

 are sometimes appropriated ; and Avhen suitable rootlets can not be had, grasses and downy weed-fibres are 

 employed for the lining. The external dimensions of the nest are exceedingly variable ; the neatest and 

 smallest structures are built in the forks of trees and bushes; the largest and roughest in briers or scraggy 



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