The Catbird (Galeoscoptes carolinemis) in Massachusetts in Winter.— 

 Just below my house in the northern part of this city is an old pasture 

 grown up with huckleberry, sheep laurel and other bushes, and at the 

 further end is a birch thicket with a tangle of briars and some sumach. 

 While passing this birch thicket about 2 i^. m on January ii last, I heard 

 a note much like the mew of a Catbird, but uttered in an excited, continu- 

 ous manner, more like the notes of that bird when suddenly finding an 

 intruder near its nest. On approaching over the two inches of snow, I 

 was much interested to see a Catbird jump up into one of the bushes about 

 fifteen yards away from me. I at once made the identification sure by 

 using my glasses. The bird was in sight several minutes, passing by 

 short flights to a thicket across the street. While in sight it uttered its 

 mewing note not over two or three times. This was a fine spring-like day 

 with a light -"thw^t^^vin£.j^0^vE.^gaRjg^^«/^^ Ma... 



Mimicry in the Song of the Catbird. — Though belonging to a dis- 

 tinguished and accomplished family of singers numbering among its mem- 

 bers such delightful songsters as the Brown Thrasher, Mockingbird and 

 more distantly related Carolina Wren, the Catbird figures with a more 

 modest pretention to song and until recently I had supposed its vocal 

 powers limited to its own individual lyrical, and sometimes seemingly 

 labored song. But on July 5, 1912, while working in a meadow adjacent 

 to a small brook with its usual tangle of alder, raspberry and elder I noted 

 with considerable surprise and interest, more so because of the day-light 

 hour, 11a. m., the song of a Whip-poor-will, somewhat subdued and minor 

 in quality, but clear and distinct nevertheless. It was several times 

 repeated from the nearby thicket. So out of the usual was it at this hour 

 that I went at once to reconnoiter and was not a little surprised to find the 

 author, not a Whip-poor-will but a Catbird! So far as my observation 

 extends he was certainly acting in a new r6le. Two or three times later 

 in the day I heard the same performance repeated, and subsequent 

 visits to the same locality have, on two occasions, enabled me to sub- 

 stantially confirm my first conclusions as to the accomplishments of this 

 individual. 



It is of further interest to note that in this particular locality the Whip- 

 poor-will is seldom heard. One would have to travel several miles to a 

 more 'brushy' or thickly wooded surrounding to hear them. These 

 observations lead to the query, how then did the Catbird ' learn his lesson ' 

 and how much progress and to what degree do some individuals of the 

 species attain in mimicry ? — S. Waldo Baimy, Newburyport, Mass. , 



I Catbird and Brown Thrasher in Winter in Massachusetts - On 



Chrts mas Day, 1911, in the Arnold Arboretum at Jamaica Plait Massa- 

 chuse ts, I saw a Catbird (Dumetella caroHnensis) in some shrubbe v about 

 three hundred yards from the museum. It was quite lively though silen 

 and rather shy. Twenty days later, on January 14, 1912, I Igain saw wha 



Tthrvtt^ V^"" ™^ ^'^^ apparently sumrinirt 



in the vmes on the museum, After allowing a rather near approach it 



iTsi™ " ™rV"*° ^'^''^ still sL'king he 



sunshme and as before, silent. The weather was clear and cold witl a 

 nimimum temperatute of one degree below zero and the Catlld acted 

 as It well m,ght, as if it was half frozen. The bird was not ob e v d " it; 

 th,s date and as shortly afterwards some Catbird feathers were seen strewn 

 around about the museum it probably came to an untimelv enl 

 saw a Rr^lf ' tJ" T ^"^^^'^^^^ °" ^he morning of December 22, 1912, I 

 saw a Brown Thrasher (Toxosloma rujum) on the ground very busily at 

 work poking among the leaves with its bill. The bird was very tame and 

 approached to within four feet of it, hardly any notice being taken of me 

 It did not utter a note of any kind neither did it leave the ground while 



LZb "l- ''''' ''''''' -owstorm of Christmas Ev 



probably driving ,t southward.- Habolb L. Baruett, Jamaica Plain. 



ABk30. April, 1913. p.27» 



