CATBIRD AND THRASHERS 
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inquiry for “Ma-ry” may become slightly exasperating when reiterated too 
close to the house. Its usual call-note like the mew of a cat, which it 
utters in the brush while curiously investigating the human intruder, is well 
known to most country frequenters, and seems to have aroused some slight 
illogical prejudice against it in the minds of its less experienced hearers. 
It is a brush frequenter, and like many other species haunting such 
habitats from whence close observations can be made with a minimum of 
danger, its curiosity is well developed. It sits on some tall spray rising 
above the general tangle, its tail depressed and body held low to the perch, 
and pours forth its medley of song. Phrase follows phrase in rapid suc- 
cession and snatches of all the bird songs of the neighbourhood appear 
intermixed with occasional harsher notes which are given with as much care 
and finish as the more melodious ones. When an intruder is detected 
approaching, the outpour stops with a sudden squeak, the tail flies up, and 
the bird comes to attention. After a moment’s observation it drops to a 
tower level where, with safe tangle close at hand, it saucily investigates the 
approaching intruder, and, with expressive tail, wig-wags the results of its 
observations, presumably to a hiding mate. Finally it plunges into the 
tangle where, confident of security, if peers out at the disturber of its 
privacy through the many small openings between crisscrossed branches. 
Gradually it works closer and closer for a better view, hopping from perch 
to perch, alert, mewing and uttering low asides to the world in general and 
perhaps its mate in particular. Its remarks may be humorous and even sar- 
castic but never become caustic, and though the general bearing is saucy 
it never degenerates into impudence. When left to its own devices and at 
ease, the Catbird often hunches up and fluffs its feathers in a shady retreat 
within hearing distance of its incubating mate and carries on a long, low- 
toned monologue, every tone soft and throaty and altogether delicious. 
What it says then is impossible to translate and probably is none of our 
business. 
Economic Status. The Catbird lives largely upon fruit in season, of 
which perhaps a third may be regarded as cultivated, but many insects 
are also taken. The fruits are small, soft varieties and it is very seldom, if 
ever, that perceptible damage is done. 
705. Brown Thrasher, la grive rousse. Toxostoma rufum. L, 11-42. Plate 
LV A. A large, reddish brown bird with long, sweeping tail. Uniform reddish above, 
creamy white below sharply striped with dark brown on breast and along flanks. 
Distinctions . The Brown Thrasher with its red-brown back and sharply streaked 
breast has the general outward appearance of a thrush, but its large size, ruddiness of the 
brown, straw-coloured eye, and long tail are distinctive. 
Field Marks. The bright red-brown back, sharply striped breast, long tail, and 
general carriage and habits. 
Nesting. In thickets or on the ground, in nests of twigs, coarse rootlets, and leaves, 
lined with finer rootlets. 
Distribution. Eastern United States. In Canada, across the southern parts of the 
Dominion west to Alberta. 
The Brown Thrasher is probably the best common Canadian songster 
from Ontario westward. 
Its song, very similar to that of the Song Thrush of Europe, is a 
succession of phrases like that of the Catbird, but without its occasional 
discordance and more liquid and mellow in tone. The notes are uttered 
close together and continue for several minutes, sometimes in great variety. 
Thoreau has translated some of them as “Drop it — drop it — cover it up 
