About the House. 23 



This near relative to the foregoing bird, inhabiting South Florida, is 



larger than the Carolina Wren, reaching six and a quarter inches in length. 



^, .J ,,, It is deep chestnut brown above, and tawny brown be- 



Florida Wren. , , , , i, t • r i i i 



Thryothorus ludovicianus neath, paler on the belly. It is more otten barred on the 



miamensis Ridgw. flanks with bkclcish brown than its congener. In song 

 and general economy it does not differ from the Carolina Wren. But it 

 seems more a bird of the woods than its near relative. 



The Catbird is a prying, nervous, wren-like bird nearly nine inches long, 

 ■clad in a lead-colored coat, relieved by a black cap on the top of the head, 

 and with the feathers below the tail bright rusty brown. 

 GaiMscoptes carolinensis The top of the tail, the bill, and feet are black, and the eyes 

 (Linn.). brown. This is one of our finest songsters, rivaling in 



varied and brilliant attainments his near relatives the Mockingbird and 

 the Brown Thrasher. Low trees and bushes in the vicinity of the house 

 afford a favorite nesting place. The structure is rather bulky and loosely 

 made of leaves, twigs, and grasses lined with finer grasses and rootlets. The 

 unspotted eggs are of blue green, more than nine tenths of an inch long, and 

 nearly seven tenths of an inch wide. The young when ready to leave the 

 nest are much like the parent birds, save that the black of the head and tail, 

 and the brown feathers beneath it, are duller and fainter. There is a ten- 

 dency to obscure, transverse mottling on the lower parts, and the back is 

 suffused with brown. If you would see devoted parents, watch the pair of 

 Catbirds that breed in the lilac bushes near your house. Observe the care 

 and solicitude shown their young, with what tenderness they are watched and 

 guarded, and finally how well and judiciously they are trained and educated. 

 The Catbird is found in the Eastern United States and the British Prov- 

 inces, west to and including the Rocky Mountains ; occasionally on the Pacific 

 Coast, from British Columbia south to Central California. They breed from 

 the Gulf States north to the Saskatchewan. 



The Mockingbird is so familiar to most of us, either in his native state or 

 J as a contented captive, as to need only a brief description. 



I MocKingbira. pj^ jg ashy gfray above, with wings and tail blackish and 



Mimus polyglottos (Linn.). J b J & _ 



a patch of white on the edge of the wing at the base of 

 its longer feathers. He is light gray or dirty white beneath, and the whole of 



