18 



BIRDS OF A MARYLAND FARM. 



song sparrow preferred thickets of blackberr}^, elder, and alder, 

 somewhat open to the sun, the catbird chose tangles of catbrier deeply 

 shaded by overspreading trees. It was therefore numerous in the 

 swampy, forested dells at the extremities of Persimmon Branch (see 

 map, PI. II), and still more .<o in the hog-lot gully (PI. IV, fig. 2), 



Fig. 4.— Catbird. 



where it found attractive food, consisting of cherries, mulberries, 

 blackberries, and elderberries, besides May-flies, which were abun- 

 dant before the fruit ripened. Here, in one morning, fifteen cat- 

 birds were seen. Like the song sparrow, this species came up to nest 

 about the house. One pair built in a holly by the gate, another near 

 the horse tub, and two pairs in the garden. All these families fed 

 among the vegetables and moved about under the apple trees and in 

 the door3"ard. The catbird is arboreal to the extent of securing prob- 

 ably three-fourths of its food in trees or bushes. Because of this fact, 

 and also because its feeding range does not extend out into fields, it 

 does not appear to have a close relation with crops. 



Other birds. — One or two pairs of cardinal grosbeaks bred on the 

 river bluff', but more were noticed in the edge of the swamp bordering 

 the arable land. They built chiefl}^ among catbriers, in stunted young 

 scrub pines, and in the tops of fallen oaks. Cardinals were also seen 

 along the wooded parts of Persimmon Branch, and may have bred 

 there. Two pairs of yellow-breasted chats nested close to crops, one 

 in the thick undergrowth of Persimmon Branch and the other in a 

 similar shaded thicket at the northeast corner of lot 4. Indigo birds 

 and brown thrashers nested near the storage barn, phoebes in the cow 

 barn» and swifts in the chimnevs of the house. 



