_Muscicapa carolinensis_, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 328. _Turdus
carolinensis_, LICHT. Verz. 1823, 38.—D’ORBIGNY, La Sagra’s Cuba,
Ois. 1840, 51. _Orpheus carolinensis_, JONES, Nat. Bermuda, 1859,
27 (breeds). _Mimus carolinensis_, GRAY, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1859,
346.—BRYANT, Pr. Bost. Soc. 1867, 69 (Inagua).—LORD, Pr. R. Art.
Inst. (Woolwich), IV, 1864, 117 (east of Cascade Mts.).
_Galeoscoptes carolinensis_, CAB. Mus. Hein. I, 1850, 82 (type of
genus).—IB. Jour. Orn. 1855, 470 (Cuba).—GUNDLACH, Repert. 1865,
230 (Cuba, very common).—SCLATER, Catal. Birds, 1861, 6, no.
39.—SCL. & SALV. Pr. 1867, 278 (Mosquito Coast).—BAIRD, Rev.
1864, 54.—SAMUELS, 172.—COOPER, Birds Cal. 1, 23.
Figures: AUD. B. A. II, pl. 140.—IB. Orn. Biog. II, pl. 28.—VIEILLOT,
Ois. Am. Sept. II, pl. lxvii.—WILSON, Am. Orn. II, pl. xiv, f. 3.
SP. CHAR. Third quill longest; first shorter than sixth. Prevailing
color dark plumbeous, more ashy beneath. Crown and nape dark
sooty-brown. Wings dark brown, edged with plumbeous. Tail
greenish-black; the lateral feathers obscurely tipped with plumbeous.
The under tail-coverts dark brownish-chestnut. Female smaller. Length,
8.85; wing, 3.65; tail, 4.00; tarsus, 1.05.
[Illustration: _Galeoscoptes carolinensis._]
HAB. United States, north to Lake Winnipeg, west to head of Columbia,
and Cascade Mountains (Lord); south to Panama R. R.; Cuba; Bahamas;
Bermuda (breeds). Accidental in Heligoland Island, Europe. Oaxaca,
Cordova, and Guatemala, SCLATER; Mosquito Coast, SCL. & SALV.; Orizaba
(winter), SUMICHRAST; Yucatan, LAWR.
Western specimens have not appreciably longer tails than Eastern.
Central American examples, as a rule, have the plumbeous of a more
bluish cast than is usually seen in North American skins.
HABITS. The Catbird has a very extended geographical range. It is
abundant throughout the Atlantic States, from Florida to Maine; in the
central portion of the continent it is found as far north as Lake
Winnepeg.
On the Pacific coast it has been met with at Panama, and also on the
Columbia River. It is occasional in Cuba and the Bahamas, and in the
Bermudas is a permanent resident. It is also found during the winter
months abundant in Central America, It breeds in all the Southern
States with possibly the exception of Florida. In Maine, according to
Professor Verrill, it is as common as in Massachusetts, arriving in
the former place about the 20th of May, about a week later than in the
vicinity of Boston, and beginning to deposit its eggs early in June.
Near Calais it is a less common visitant.
The Northern migrations of the Catbird commence early in February,
when they make their appearance in Florida, Georgia, and the
Carolinas. In April they reach Virginia and Pennsylvania, and New
England from the 1st to the 10th of May. Their first appearance is
usually coincident with the blossoming of the pear-trees. It is not
generally a popular or welcome visitant, a prejudice more or less wide
spread existing in regard to it. Yet few birds more deserve kindness
at our hands, or will better repay it. From its first appearance among
us, almost to the time of departure in early fall, the air is vocal
with the quaint but attractive melody, rendered all the more
interesting from the natural song being often blended with notes
imperfectly mimicked from the songs of other birds. The song, whether
natural or imitative, is always varied, attractive, and beautiful.
The Catbird, when once established as a welcome guest, soon makes
itself perfectly at home. He is to be seen at all times, and is almost
ever in motion. They become quite tame, and the male bird will
frequently apparently delight to sing in the immediate presence of
man. Occasionally they will build their nest in close proximity to a
house, and appear unmindful of the presence of the members of the
family.
The Catbird’s power of mimicry, though limited and imperfectly
exercised, is frequently very amusing. The more difficult notes it
rarely attempts to copy, and signally fails whenever it does so. The
whistle of the Quail, the cluck of a hen calling her brood, the answer
of the young chicks, the note of the Pewit Flycatcher, and the refrain
of Towhee, the Catbird will imitate with so much exactness as not to
be distinguished from the original.
The Catbirds are devoted parents, sitting upon their eggs with great
closeness, feeding the young with assiduity, and accompanying them
with parental interest when they leave the nest, even long after they
are able to provide for themselves. Intruders from whom danger is
apprehended they will boldly attack, attempting to drive away snakes,
cats, dogs, and sometimes even man. If these fail they resort to
piteous cries and other manifestations of their great distress.
Towards each other they are affectionate and devoted, mutually
assisting in the construction of the nest; and as incubation
progresses the female, who rarely leaves the nest, is supplied with
food, and entertained from his exhaustless vocabulary of song, by her
mate. When annoyed by an intruder the cry of the Catbird is loud,
harsh, and unpleasant, and is supposed to resemble the outcry of a
cat, and to this it owes its name. This note it reiterates at the
approach of any object of its dislike or fear.
The food of the Catbird is almost exclusively the larvæ of the larger
insects. For these it searches both among the branches and the fallen
leaves, as well as the furrows of newly ploughed fields and cultivated
gardens. The benefit it thus confers upon the farmer and the
horticulturist is very great, and can hardly be overestimated.
The Catbird can with proper painstaking be raised from the nest, and
when this is successfully accomplished they become perfectly
domesticated, and are very amusing pets.
They construct their nests on clusters of vines or low bushes, on the
edges of small thickets, and in retired places, though almost always
near cultivated ground. The usual materials of their nests are dry
leaves for the base, slender strips of long dry bark, small twigs,
herbaceous plants, fine roots, and finer stems. They are lined with
fine dry grasses, and sedges. Their nests average 4 inches in height
by 5 in diameter. The diameter and depth of the cavity are 3½ inches.
The eggs are of a uniform deep bluish-green, and measure .97 in length
and .69 of an inch in breadth.