The Catbird’s colors, call-notes, and manners are easily remembered. He is plainly attired; his cat-like call is familiar; and his jaunty appearance in yard or orchard is instantly recognizable. His song, while varied and pleasing in spots, is interspersed with squeaks and chuckles which are not musical. As he sings, his tail droops, but when he is bustling about on every-day business he is given to changing his attitude with the passing instants—now he is fluffy, now sleek; up goes his tail; he jumps; he flashes his wings, droops them and spreads his tail. It takes many an insect and berry to keep so active an organism alive.
Catbird
BROWN THRASHER
Toxostoma rufa rufa (Linnæus)
Other Name.—Brown Thrush (erroneous).
Description.—Size of Robin, with longer tail. Rich, bright red-brown above, the wing-bars whitish, and a rather noticeably buffy line above eye; underparts whitish, heavily streaked with black, save on throat and middle of belly; eyes yellow. Length: 11½ inches.
Range in Pennsylvania.—An abundant migrant and summer resident from mid-April to mid-October.
Nest.—Large and strong, of twigs, lined with rootlets and strips of weed-stalks, usually placed in a bush a few feet from the ground. Eggs: 3 to 6, whitish, thickly and finely peppered with brown and gray.
Brown Thrasher
The Brown Thrasher, with its short wings and long, brown tail, is a big relative of the wrens and is not a thrush. He lives in brushy pastures, where his rich, varied song, wherein all phrases are repeated twice as the music progresses, is given from a high bough. Disturb him in his thicket home and he scolds with a harsh chuck, coming close to peer with his startlingly golden eyes. Rightly has this bird been called the “Mocker of the North,” for its song is a succession of excellent imitations of many bird-songs, together with a few which are of the Thrasher’s own invention.
CAROLINA WREN
Thryothorus ludovicianus ludovicianus (Latham)
Other Name.—Teakettle Bird.
Description.—Smaller than English Sparrow, but largest of our wrens. Rich red-brown above; prominent whitish or buffy line above eye; concealed white spots on rump; wings and tail barred with blackish; underparts buffy, lightest on throat, sometimes somewhat barred on flanks and under tail-coverts. Length: 5½ inches.
Range in Pennsylvania.—A local permanent resident in the southernmost counties; its range is apparently gradually extending northward.
Nest.—Large, loosely made, of leaves, twigs, weed-stalks, and débris, often almost completely domed over and neatly cupped, placed in a shed or in a crevice in an old log or tree-trunk. Eggs: 4 to 6, white, rather heavily spotted with reddish brown.