CAT BIRD. 
243 
From the nest of another Cat Bird I took two half fledged 
young, and placed them in that of another, which was sitting 
on five eggs. She soon turned them both out. The place 
where the nest was not being far from the ground, they were 
little injured, and the male observing their helpless situation, 
began to feed them with great assiduity and tenderness. 
I removed the nest of a Cat Bird, which contained four 
eggs, nearly hatched, from a fox grape vine, and fixed it 
firmly and carefully in a thicket of briers close by, without 
injuring its contents. In less than half an hour I returned, 
and found it again occupied by the female. 
The Cat Bird is one of our earliest morning songsters, 
beginning generally before break of day, and hovering from 
bush to bush, with great sprightliness, when there is scarce light 
sufficient to distinguish him. His notes are more remarkable for 
singularity than for melody. They consist of short imitations of 
other birds, and other sounds; but, his pipe being rather 
deficient in clearness and strength of tone, his imitations fail 
where these are requisite. Yet he is not easily discouraged, 
but seems to study certain passages wfitli great perseverance ; 
uttering them at first low, and, as he succeeds, higher and more 
free, nowise embarrassed by the presence of a spectator even 
within a few yards of him. On attentively listening for some 
time to him, one can perceive considerable variety in his 
performance, in which he seems to introduce all the odd sounds 
and quaint passages he has been able to collect. Upon the 
whole, though we cannot arrange him with the grand leaders 
of our vernal choristers, he well merits a place among the 
most agreeable general performers. 
This bird, as has been before observed, is very numerous 
in summer, in the middle states. Scarcely a thicket in the 
country is without its Cat Birds ; and were they to fly in 
flocks, like many other birds, they would darken the air with 
their numbers. But their migrations are seldom observed, 
owing to their gradual progress and recession, in spring and 
autumn, to and from their breeding places. They enter 
