CAT-BIRD. 



9S 



sages with great perseverance; uttering tliem at first low, and as 

 he succeeds, higher and more free ; no ways embarrassed by the 

 presence of a spectator even within a few yards of him. On atten- 

 tively listening for some time to him one can perceive considerable 

 variety in his performance, in which he seems to introduce all the 

 odd sounds and quaint passages he has been able to collect. Upon 

 the whole, tho we cannot arrange him with the grand leaders of 

 our vernal choristers, he well merits a place among the most agree- 

 able general performers. 



This bird, as has been before observed, is very numerous in 

 summer, in the middle states. Scarcely a thicket in the country 

 is without its Cat-birds; and were they to fly in flocks, like many 

 other birds, they would darken the air with their numbers. But 

 their migrations are seldom observed, owing to their gradual pro- 

 gress and recession, in spring and autumn, to and from their breed- 

 ing places. They enter Georgia late in February; and reach New 

 England about the beginning of May. In their migrations they 

 keep pace with the progress of agriculture ; and the first settlers in 

 many parts of the Gennesee country have told me, that it was se- 

 veral years after they removed there before the Cat-bird made his 

 appearance among them. With all these amiable qualities to re- 

 commend 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 tvhy ; 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 



VOL. IT. A a 



