244 CATBIRD. 



recommend him, few people in the country respect the cat 

 bird ; on the contrary, it is generally the object of dislike ; 

 and the boys of the United States entertain the same prejudice 

 and contempt for this bird, its nest, and young, as those of 

 Britain do for the yellow hammer, and its nest, eggs, and 

 young. I am at a loss to account for this cruel prejudice. 

 Even those by whom it is entertained can scarcely tell you 

 why ; only they " hate cat birds ; " as some persons tell you 

 they hate Frenchmen, they hate Dutchmen, &c. — expressions 

 that bespeak their own narrowness of understanding and want 

 of liberality. Yet, after ruminating over in my own mind all 

 the probable causes, I think I have at last hit on some of 

 them ; the principal of which seems to me to be a certain 

 similarity of taste, and clashing of interest, between the cat 

 bird and the farmer. The cat bird is fond of large ripe garden 

 strawberries ; so is the farmer, for the good price they bring 

 in market : the cat bird loves the best and richest early 

 cherries ; so does the farmer, for they are sometimes the most 

 profitable of his early fruit : the cat bird has a particular par- 

 tiality for the finest ripe mellow pears; and these are also 

 particular favourites with the farmer. But the cat bird has 

 frequently the advantage of the farmer, by snatching off the 

 first fruits of these delicious productions ; and the farmer takes 

 revenge, by shooting him down with his gun, as he finds old 

 hats, windmills, and scarecrows, are no impediments in his way 

 to these forbidden fruits ; and nothing but this resource — the 

 ultimatum of farmers as well as kings — can restrain his visits. 

 The boys are now set to watch the cherry trees with the gun : 

 and thus commences a train of prejudices and antipathies, that 

 commonly continue through life. Perhaps, too, the common 

 note of the cat bird, so like the mewing of the animal whose 

 name it bears, and who itself sustains no small share of pre- 

 judice, the homeliness of his plumage, and even his familiarity ? 

 so proverbially known to beget contempt, may also contribute 

 to this mean, illiberal, and persecuting prejudice; but, with 

 the generous and the good, the lovers of nature and of rural 



