90 



CAT-BIRD. 



TURDUS LIVIDUS: 

 [Plate XIV.— Fig. 3.] 



Muscicapa Qarolinensis^ Linn. Syst. 328. — Le gobe-mouche briin de Firginie, Briss. II, 365. 

 — Cat-bird, Catesb. I, 66. — Latham, II, 353. — Le moucherolle de Virginie, Buff. IVj 

 562. — Lucar lividus, apice nigra, the Cat-bird, or Chicken-bird, Bartram, p. 290. — 

 P E A L E ' s ilfw^ e'w;^^ , JVb. 6 7 70. 



WE have here before us a very common and very numerous 

 species, m this part of the United States ; and one as well known 

 to all classes of people, as his favorite briars, or blackberry bushes. 

 In spring or summer, on approaching thickets of brambles, the 

 first salutation you receive is from the Cat-bird; and a stranger, 

 unacquainted with its note, would instantly conclude that some va- 

 grant orphan kitten had got bewildered among the briars, and 

 wanted assistance; so exactly does the call of the bird resemble 

 the voice of that animal. Unsuspicious, and extremely familiar, 

 he seems less apprehensive of man than almost any other of our 

 summer visitants ; for whether in the woods, or in the garden, 

 where he frequently builds his nest, he seldom allows you to pass 

 without approaching to pay his respects, in his usual way. This 

 humble familiarity and deference, from a stranger too, who comes 

 to rear his young, and spend the summer with us, ought to entitle 

 him to a full share of our hospitality. Sorry I am, however, to say, 

 that this, in too many instances, is cruelly the reverse. Of this 1 

 will speak more particularly in the sequel. 



About the twenty-eighth of February the Cat -bird first arrives 

 in the lower parts of Georgia from the south, consequently winters 

 not far distant, probably in Florida. On the second week in April 



