82 
RURAL HOURS. 
still see the cat-birds on the same spot, quite at home. Whether 
they are the same pair or not one cannot say. 
Some persons do not admire the cat-bird, on account of his 
sober plumage ; but the rich shaded grays of his coat strike us as 
particularly pleasing, and his form is elegant. His cry, to be 
sure, is odd enough for a bird, and sometimes when he repeats it 
twenty times in succession in the course of half an hour, one feels 
inclined to box his ears. It is the more provoking in him to in- 
sult us in this way, because some of his notes, when he chooses, 
are very musical — soft and liquid — as different as possible from 
his harsh, grating cry. Like his cousin, the mocking-bird, he 
often deserves a good shaking for his caprices, both belonging to 
the naughty class of " birds who can sing, and won't sing," ex- 
cept when it suits their fancy. 
The cat-bird is a great bather, like the goldfinch. He is said to 
use the cast-off skins of snakes to line his nest, whenever he can find 
them. He leaves us in October, and winters on the Gulf of Mexico. 
Monday, 22,d. — The apple-blossoms are charmingly fragrant 
now ; they have certainly the most delightful perfume of all our 
northern fruit-trees. 
The later forest-trees are coming into leaf ; the black walnuts, 
butternuts, sumachs, hickories, ashes, and locusts. Trees with 
that kind of pinnated foliage seem to be later than others. The 
locust is always the last to open its leaves ; they are just begin- 
ning to show, and a number of others, which partake of the same 
character of foliage, have only preceded them by a Aveek or so. 
The springs are all runnmg beautifully clear and full now. Corn 
planted to-day. 
