Species VIII. TU11DUS LIVID US. 
CAT-BIRD. 
[Plate XIV. Fig. 3.] 
Muscicapa Carolinensis, Linn. Sijst. 328. — Le gobe-mouche brun de Virginie, Brass, 
ii., 3G5. — Cat-bird, Catesb. i., 66. — Latham, ii., 353. — Le moucherolle de Virginie, 
Buff, iv., 502. — Lucar lioidus, apice nigra, the Cat-bird, or Chicken-bird, 
Bartram, p. 290. 
We have here before us a very common and very numerous species, 
in 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 vagrant 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 Avhether 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 I will speak 
more particularly in the sequel. 
About the twenty-eighth of February the Cat-bird firs*t arrives in the 
lower parts of Georgia from the south, consequently winters not far 
distant, probably in Florida. On the second week in April he usually 
reaches this part of Pennsylvania ; and about the beginning of May has 
already succeeded in building his nest. The place chosen for this 
purpose is generally a thicket of briars or brambles, a thorn bush, 
thick vine or the fork of a small sapling ; no great solicitude is shown 
for concealment ; though few birds appear more interested for the 
safety of their nest and young. The materials are dry leaves and 
weeds, small twigs and fine dry grass, the inside is lined with the fine 
black fibrous roots of some plant. The female lays four, sometimes 
five eggs, of a uniform greenish blue color, without any spots. They 
generally raise two. and sometimes three broods in a season. 
(38) 
