102 The Wilson Bulletin. 



mer since that they have been staying in increasing num- 

 bers, until this summer they are really abundant — so read- 

 ily do birds respond to measures of protection. 



With the Robin we naturally associate the Catbird, the 

 Brown Thrasher, and the Mockingbird, the two former very 

 abundant here and the latter not at all uncommon. On the 

 Chesapeake Bay it is numerous the year round. Many ab- 

 surd notions exist in the common mind here concerning the 

 Catbird. It is universally charged with pulling up corn, 

 though stomach examinations as well as the form of the 

 bill show but slight evidence in this direction. The chil- 

 dren say it calls snakes ; and one lad in school went so far 

 as to say, that the last eggs laid by that bird all hatch out 

 snakes. Of course the poor bird is stoned and shot and its 

 nest is broken up by all those under the influence of these 

 mistaken notions. 



Naturally enough, too, one associates with the Wood 

 Thrush the Oven-bird {Seiurus aurocapillns), which abounds 

 here throughout the forest. Up to the time of the appear- 

 ance of "Wake Robin" by John Burroughs, the familiar 

 woodland chant of this species was supposed to be its only 

 song. He calling attention to its pleasing crepuscular flight 

 song, we watched many weary hours in our ornithological 

 studies in Western New York, in order to verify for our- 

 selves this new bird note ; but excepting one midnight per- 

 formance, beginning in the ordinary chant and ending in a 

 beautiful warble, we utterly failed of success. On coming 

 to Maryland, we experienced a new era in this respect. In 

 clearing up the land and planting our new fruit garden of 

 some eighteen acres, we found the tall forests around us oc- 

 cupied in every direction by this species ; and this flight 

 song was one of the commonest occurrences. Indeed we 

 have heard it at about all hours of the night, and not infre- 

 quently during any hour of a cloudy day. The performance 

 is most common, however, between sunset and dark. Then 

 the bird soars high above the tree-tops, and hovering at 

 about the same point for a few seconds, utters a sweet, flow- 



