BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 217 



flying insects. In addition to their sharp and rapid song, these birds 

 when hopping about the trees, frequently spread their tails ; this pe- 

 culiar habit of opening and closing the tail will often aid you in recog- 

 nizing a Redstart, in the tops of high trees, when it otherwise might 

 be unknown. The nest a compact, cup-shaped structure, composed of 

 various vegetable fibres, spiders webs, and -horse- hair is built in the 

 fork or on the horizontal limb of a small tree, 6 to 25 feet from the 

 ground. The eggs, mostly four, are grayish- white or light greenish- 

 white, thinly speckled or blotched with brown and purplish. They 

 measure about .63 long by .50 wide. The Redstart feeds exclusively 

 on an insect diet, consisting chiefly of flies, spiders, plant-lice, butter 

 flies, beetles and different larvae. 



FAMILY TROGLODYTID-ZE. WRENS, THRASHERS, ETC. 



SUBFAMILY MIMING. THRASHERS. 

 GENUS GALEOSCOPTES. CABANIS. 

 704. Galeoscoptes carolinensis (LINN.). 



Catbird. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Length about 9 ; extent about 11| inches ; bill and feet black; iris brown; pre- 

 vailing color dark slate, somewhat lighter beneath ; top of head and tail black ; 

 under tail coverts chestnut. The adult female is rather smaller than the male, and 

 the young are duller in color, with little or no black on crown ; under parts paler ; 

 under tail coverts dull reddish. 



T6. Eastern United States and British Provinces, west to and including the 

 Rocky Mountains ; occasional on the Pacific Coast, Winters in the Southern States, 

 Cuba and Middle America to Panama ; accidental in Europe. 



This well-known bird is a common summer resident from the last 

 week in April to about November 1. This species frequents all locali- 

 ties, but is probably most numerous in briery thickets and tangled 

 undergrowth near streams and ponds. Its bulky nest, constructed 

 mainly of dead twigs, roots, to which are often added dried leaves or 

 grasses, is built mostly in bushes. The eggs, usually four, are deep 

 greenish-blue and unspotted. They measure a little less than an inch 

 long, and a trifle under three-fourths wide. These birds, like some 

 other members of the family, subsist largely on different kinds of small 

 fruits and berries. In the early summer the Catbird feeds on cherries 

 and strawberries ; later in the season, mulberries, blackberries and 

 raspberries. Late in the summer and in the autumn he subsists mainly 

 on berries of the spicewood and poke-plant, and also different varie- 

 ties of both cultivated and wild grapes. This species, in the spring, 

 especially in May, and also when breeding, feeds to a considerable ex- 

 tent on various k ' worms," beetles, flies, spiders, etc. The Catbird, so 

 called because its sharp and petulant cry is not unlike the mewing of 

 a cat, is one of our most gifted and delightful songsters. 



