CAT-BIRD. 



95 



only it wanted the red under the tail : probably it might have been 

 a young bird, in which the red is scarcely observable. 



This bird has been very improperly classed among the Fly- 

 catchers. As he never seizes his prey on wing, has none of their 

 manners, feeds principally on fruit, and seems to differ so little from 

 the Thrushes, I think he more properly belongs to the latter tribe 

 than to any other genus we have. His bill, legs and feet, place 

 and mode of building, the color of the eggs, his imitative notes, 

 food and general manners, all justify me in removing him to this 

 genus. 



The Cat-bird is one of those unfortunate victims, and indeed 

 the principal, against which credulity and ignorance have so often 

 directed the fascinating quality of the black-snake. A multitude 

 of marvellous stories have been told me by people who have them- 

 selves seen the poor Cat-birds drawn, or sucked, as they sometimes 

 express it, from the tops of the trees (which by the bye the Cat- 

 bird rarely visits) one by one, into the yawning mouth of the im- 

 moveable snake. It has so happened with me that in all the ad- 

 ventures of this kind that I have personally witnessed, the Cat-bird 

 was actually the assailant, and always the successful one. These 

 rencontres never take place but during the breeding time of birds ; 

 for whose eggs and young the snake has a particular partiality. It 

 is no wonder that those species whose nests are usually built near 

 the ground, should be the greatest sufferers, and the most solicitous 

 for their safety; hence the cause why the Cat-bird makes such a dis- 

 tinguished figure in most of these marvellous narrations. That a 

 poisonous snake will strike a bird or mouse, and allow it to remain 

 till nearly expiring before he begins to devour it, our observations 

 on the living rattle-snake at present kept by Mr. Peale, satisfy us 

 is a fact; but that the same snake, with eyes, breath, or any other 

 known quality he possesses, should be capable of drawing a bird, 

 reluctantly, from the tree tops to its mouth, is an absurdity too 

 great for me to swallow. 



