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.
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.
Family CINCLIDÆ.—The Dippers
On page 2 will be found the characteristics of this family, which need not be here repeated. There is only a single genus, Cinclus, with four American species, and several from Europe and Asia.
Hydrobata, Vieillot, Analyse, 1816 (Ag.).—Baird, B. N. A. 229.
Cinclus, Bechstein, Gemein. Naturg. 1802. (Not of Moehring, 1752. Type Sturnus cinclus, L.)—Salvin, Ibis, 1867, 109. (Monograph.)
Cinclus mexicanus.
8117
Gen. Char. Bill without any bristles at the base; slender, subulate; the mandible bent slightly upward; the culmen slightly concave to near the tip, which is much curved and notched; the commissural edges of the bill finely nicked towards end. Feet large and strong, the toes projecting considerably beyond the tail; the claws large. Lateral toes equal. Tail very short and even; not two thirds the wings, which are concave and somewhat falcate. The first primary is more than one fourth the longest. Eggs white.
Cinclus mexicanus.
The slightly upward bend of the bill, somewhat as in Anthus, renders the culmen concave, and the commissure slightly convex. The maxilla at base is nearly as high as the mandible; the whole bill is much compressed and attenuated. The lateral claws barely reach the base of the middle one, which is broad; the inner face extended into a horny lamina, with one or two notches or pectinations somewhat as in Caprimulgidæ. The stiffened sub-falcate wings are quite remarkable. The tail is so short that the upper coverts extend nearly to its tip.
The species are all dull-colored birds, usually brown, sometimes varied with white on the head, back, or throat. They inhabit mountainous subalpine regions abounding in rapid streams, and always attract attention by their habit of feeding under water, searching among the gravel and stones for their insect prey.
The only other species at all allied to the single North American one are the C. ardesiacus of Central America, and C. pallasi of Eastern Asia. They may be easily distinguished by the following characters:—
Plumage beneath scarcely lighter than that above; head and