BIRDS OF THE WEST 



sensation that possesses you when you just miss stepping on a 

 snake. 



The catbird is not generally liked because it is far easier in 

 this world to notice bad qualities than good ones. Some one has 

 called him the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde among birds. Surely 

 there is no neater, trimmer or more graceful bird while he is 

 singing one of the sweetest of bird songs, but when he flattens him- 

 self out in fear or anger and ruffles up his feathers and hisses 

 his resentment at you he is very far from being a beauty. 



If ever a bird lays a pretty egg it is the lady catbird. It 

 is an intense green and four of them are laid in a neat nest made 

 of fine roots and trimmed on the outside with little strips of 

 grapevine bark. As the material indicates, it will be found most 

 often near swamps or on the edge of ponds and rivers. 



He is the American mockingbird unless the brown thrasher 

 has won the honor. The votes are not all counted yet. I am al- 

 most tempted to call him my favorite bird, for while he is called 

 the "Mr. Hyde" of bird life he is not really so. He assumes 

 that part only to make his enemies think that he is tough and that 

 they had better move on. As soon as they are gone, he comes 

 off his perch like a gentleman, smoothes down his pretty gray 

 suit, and pours out his soul in a paeon of great joy. 



Like nearly all of the birds the catbird is a friend of man, 

 and does far more good than harm. I think the only charge ever 

 preferred against him is that he likes an occasional cherry, but 

 he doesn't have to have it stained with coal-tar dye to allure him 

 nor must he have one with every potion. As a friend of mine said 

 to me the other day. "If the birds eat more of my cherries than 

 I can spare, I will plant more cherry trees." Why shouldn't 

 man do that much for the birds? If he doesn't w^ant to lose 

 his cherries let him plant mulberry trees. The birds like mul- 

 berries better and mulberries look more like caterpillars anyway. 



