9 
THE BIRDS THAT IVE SEE. 
767 
bird in which she lays the egg, and 
then leaves it entirely to the care of 
the unwilling, and often unwitting, fos¬ 
ter-parents. As a rule this means the 
destruction of the bird’s own brood, for 
the young cowbird, being hatched soon¬ 
er than the true offspring, monopolizes 
two of our common orchard-l)irds that 
have discovered methods of outwitting 
this immoral and lawless vagal)ond. The 
catbird [p. 768], one of these, may, gen¬ 
erally, be found in the dark hedge or 
thicket at the bottom of the orchard. 
That scolding, whistling, chirping sere- 
Pair of Baltimore Orioles—Nest and Song, 
all attentions, and the other young, if 
hatched at all, die of unavoidable neg¬ 
lect. 
Nearly all small birds that make an 
open nest near the ground are habit¬ 
ually imposed on by the cowbird, and 
whether or not they detect the fraud, 
they generally carry out faithfully the 
unsought task. But there are, at least. 
nade, intermixed with peculiar, kitten¬ 
like meAvings, is the song of the bird we 
are seeking, and is also the obvious ex¬ 
planation of the bird’s name. In ap¬ 
pearance the catbird is of a dull slaty 
color, with a black cap and tail, and 
just under the base of the tail a chest¬ 
nut patch. Its beak and form are slen¬ 
der, and its size about that of a robin, 
