Plate XVII. 
Ml MVS CAROL! NENSIS— Catbird. 
The Catbird is a resident from April loth to October the 1st. During this time they hatch one 
and sometimes two broods. The first nest is usually completed early in May, though building is often 
delayed until June. The second set of eggs is deposited in July. 
LOCALIT Y : 
In the country they build alike in the wildest woods and the most cultivated districts, occupying 
any bush or tree that is accessible. Thickets along rivers, creeks, canals, and ponds, as well as briei’- 
patches and thick clumps of bushes along' roads and about the outskirts of timber-land, are the most fre- 
quented localities. In the towns they are nearly as abundant as in the country ; the bushes and low trees 
of the garden and lawn, together with the shade-trees ot the streets, affording plenty of nesting sites. 
POSITION : 
The nest, when situated in a bush, is usually supported beneath and at the sides by a number of 
stems. Its irregular exterior has numerous projecting sticks, which rest upon the small twigs, and 
often interlace with them, so that a great degree of security is obtained. Sometimes the materials of 
the foundation are so interwoven with the branches or twigs which sustain it, that it is impossible to 
remove the nest without tearing it from its supports. The nest, Avhen built in a tree, is either in a 
horizontal or perpendicular fork formed by limbs which may be three or four inches in diameter, though 
usually much smaller, and is supported about the circumference by branches or twigs ; or is saddled upon 
a large limb, or a number of small ones, and otherwise supported as when in a fork. Its distance from 
the ground when in a bush is commonly about three or four feet, when in a tree it rarely exceeds ten 
feet, though I have seen one nest in a pear tree over thirty feet high. 
MATERIALS : 
The foundation of the average nest consists of dead twigs of the various trees and Aveeds in the 
neighborhood, from a sixteenth to a quarter of an inch in diameter, and often a foot and a half long. 
The coarsest material is in the first part of the foundation, and as the work progresses smaller and 
shorter twigs are employed. The superstructure is composed of similar but finer material, together Avith 
dried leaAms, bark and tendrils of grapevine, and rootlets. Grapevine-bark in long strips is often used 
in abundance, and so Avoven and braided together as to form a basket of considerable strength. The 
lining is made of light-colored and dark broAvn or black rootlets, thickly matted together and extending 
to the rim. About toAvns and farm-houses, strings, rags, paper, avooI, cotton, feathers and like substances 
are sometimes appropriated ; and AAdien suitable rootlets can not be had, grasses and doAvny Aveed-fibres are 
employed for the lining. The external dimensions of the nest are exceedingly A'ariable ; the neatest and 
smallest structures are built in the forks of trees and bushes ; the largest and roughest in briers or scraggy 
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