112 
ABOUT THE CAT-BIRD. 
head, and muscular neck ; and in defence of his mate and their 
young he will resolutely offer battle to the largest hawk or eagle — 
which, however, is too prudent to take up the gage. He has a peculiar 
habit of storing the surplus food he does not eat, — impaling gi-ass- 
hoppers and other insects, and even small birds, on thorns or the 
prickly branches of trees ; thus giving rise to a fanciful German 
notion that he catches and impales nine grasshoppers a day. Hence 
he is sometimes known as the neun-toldter, or nine-killer. 
Another immigrant, coming up from the warm sunny south at the 
first suggestions of spring, is the cat-bird, a member of the thrush family, 
which loves the bramble thickets and the fragrant recesses of dells and 
copses, green with briers. His name he owes to the peculiarity of his 
cry, which a stranger, unacquainted with it and with the bird, would 
certainly suppose to be the doleful complaint of some wandering and 
bewildered kitten. In passing through the Western woods, you have 
but to imitate the cheeping of young birds, and immediately the cat- 
bird will make his appearance; and as you continue your imitation, 
his distress and anxiety will inci'ease, for he believes that his offspring 
are in danger. To and fro he hurries, with open mouth and wings 
di'ooping, repeating his call louder and still louder, faster and still faster, 
until his apprehension finds vent in a regular scream. It is said that 
he repeats his lamentations with an intensity of pathos which is truly 
affecting. All the feathered community are actuated by a common 
emotion; they hasten to the place to inquire into the cause of so 
unusual an ebullition of suffering, and flutter about in obvious 
sympathy, until their household cares compel them to withdraw. 
The American warblers are found everywhere. As, for instance, the 
yellow-rump warbler among the cedar and myrtle groves which line 
the American coast; the restless black-and-yellow warbler among the 
glorious magnolias of the Mississippi. The large May warbler seems to 
prefer the maple swamps, salt marshes, and sea-islands of New Jersey. 
The blue-eyed yellow warbler is partial to the willows, snowball shrubs, 
and poplars of the gardens and shrubberies. Of meek and modest dis- 
position, the Maryland yellow-throat confines himself to the luxuriant 
leafiness of briers brambles, alder-bushes, and other plants which grow 
