658 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
301. Catbird. Dumetella carolinensis (Linn.). (704) 
Synonyms: Cat Flycatcher, Slate-colored Mockingbird.—Muscicapa carolinensis, 
Linn., 1766.—Turdus carolinensis, Licht., 1823.—Mimus carolinensis, Jardine and most 
of the older writers—Galeoscoptes carolinensis, Cab., 1850, Baird, 1864, A. O. U. Check- 
list, 1SS6, and most subsequent authors.—Orpheus carolinensis, Aud., 1839. 
Figure 144. 
General color slate, darker above, lighter below, the whole top of the 
head black, as is also the tail; under tail-coverts deep chestnut. 
Distribution.—Eastern United States and British Provinces, west to 
and including the Rocky Mountains; occasional on the Pacific coast from 
British Columbia south to central California. Breeds from the Gulf 
Fig. 144. Catbird. From Yearbook of Department of Agriculture, 1895. 
Courtesy of Biological Survey. 
States northward to the Saskatchewan. Winters in the southern states, 
Cuba, and Central America to Panama. 
The Catbird is too well known to need careful description, being one 
of our most familiar birds throughout the greater part of the state. It 
enters our borders from the south usually in April, occasionally as early 
as the 10th, but more often between the 20th and the 30th, and has been 
recorded a few times as early as April 4 (Wood, Ann Arbor). It soon 
spreads over the whole of the Lower Peninsula and extends sparingly 
into the Upper Peninsula, where the writer found it here and there along 
the south shore of Lake Superior in the summer of 1903. It has also 
been recorded from Marquette, Mackinac, Chippewa, Iron, Dickinson, 
Delta and Ontonagon counties, though not reported abundant in any of 
these. A single specimen was taken on Isle Royale, September 12, 1905, 
by the University of Michigan Expedition (Peet, Adams’ Rep., Mich. 
