390 BIRDS OF ONTARIO. 



chievous ancestor, while teasing a cat, picked up the cry, and trans- 

 mitted it tUl it has now become hereditary. But for this, the bird 

 might have been known by some respectable name, giving him the 

 first place in the list of Canadian songsters, to which I believe he 

 is well entitled. The only rival he has in the woods is the Brown 

 Thrasher, which we admit is also a grand performer. He is a larger 

 bird, and his notes can be heard a long way off, but, having listened 

 to both attentively, I find that for. variety and richness of notes, 

 as well as for sweetness and execution, I can cordially award the 

 palm to the Catbird. In the color of his plumage there is nothing 

 attractive, but he is handsome in form, and of a most sociable and 

 kindly disposition. He is not partial to the solitude of the woods. 

 His great delight seems to be to nestle near a log-house in the edge 

 of a clearing, where his rapturous notes are the first sounds heard 

 in the morning by the squatters' children, and again in the evening 

 they are soothed to slumber by his plaintive strains. By all means 

 let us give the Catbird the encouragement and protection that may 

 be in our power, and we shall be well rewarded both by good music 

 and by good work in the garden. 



