Catbird

a well known slaty-gray bird with black crown and tail. About nine inches in length. It is related to the wren, the brown thrasher, and the mocking bird, the latter of which it resembles not a little. It ranges from Hudson Bay to the Gulf, nesting in dense thickets and closely foliaged trees. Three to five eggs, greenish blue. The catbird is intensely distressed when her nest is discovered. Mrs. Olive Thorne Miller gives the catbird a high reputation for hospitality and charitable behavior toward its unfortunate neighbors, feeding the hungry and distressed like a good Samaritan; but Lowell speaks of catbirds as "weasel Scots," that from their home in a syringa bush, tore down the unguarded nests of their neighbors. The catbird is a fine singer, performing late into the night; but it demands prompt payment in raspberries and other small fruits in sufficient quantities for self and fledglings. See Mocking Bird