The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1878-03-29
COMB441TENEss OF BtRDs

By a fiction Of the ssets birds all
sing, praise, if they sing at all, to the
great Creator. OF course, this sounds
well, and may have some moral found
alton; but | can come as near proving
that a Catbird curses, and swears, and
filings out all sorts of abusive epIithets
at its enemies, when angry, as any one
can come to establishing the song
praise theory. How these little fel@
lows can fret, and acold, and hiss, and
imprecate-yes, impTecatel Let
sporrow-hawk or screech- owl, or butch
e. bird, 90 near ones nest, afid. if you
observe closely, your Imagination must
be very torpid, indeed, if you conn0t
hear "Sacrebieu :" and all that, scatter
cd around pretty freely. ] have seen
one fairly dance in ecstacv OF anger
when nothing but poor, little brown
lizard came near it. A pair of catbirds
had their nest and young in currant
hedge of the garden belonging to
farmhouse where | was lodging one
Spring, and | used to amuse myself by
exciting the anger Of the mother bird
To this had only to hang a bit of red
cloth near the nest in her absence, and
await the result No sooner would she
return than such a twittering and
squeaking, and scOlding, would begin
as only catbird could generate, and
when she found out thai there was mo
fight" in the rag, she would eye me
sitting at my window and NEW trium-
phantly as if she well knew who it was
had thus troubled her equanimty. a
war of words-or rather a war of
notes-is thing of frequent occurrence
between a catbird and common brown
thrush. Early i'll the morning through
the month of May they may be heard
screaming their respective medleys at
the extreme pitch of their voices from
neighbOring trees, each sOngster mali
ciously bent on drowning the others
voice The common barn yard cock
is given to like ambition in the matter
of Growing down" all competitors
Speaking of the brown thrush reminds
me that | ought to record right here
very singular combat, witnessed by
myself and brother, between one of
these gay singers and blue jay (what
bird is not compelled to fight the lat
j.
discounted and beaten We were in
the shade Of wild plum tee on the /
edge of a little glade. Near us was a
clump of sugar haw bushes, in one of /
which we had discovered brown /
thrush's nest. The bird was incuba-
ting. A blue jay, fitting about or mis-
chief intent, as, in fact, a blue jay al |
WAYS is, happened to spy her, and i'm |
mediately attacked her, driving her for |
refuge into the thick, thOrny foliage /
above the nest This seemed an easy
turn for the jay, which at once pre-
pared to have a feast of the eggs. Bat |
no sooner had it percEed on the rim of
the nest than the thrush, with saw
age squall, plunged down from its hid |
ing place, and struck it a heavy blow
on the back The jay retreated in dis
order, but warily returned again when
all seemed still With infinite caution
in every movement, it hoped from
twig to twIg, turning its crested head
this way and that till it reached the
nest Again, with shrill scream, the
thrush pounced from its hiding place,
using its long, sharp peak for sword
to slap the jays exposed ana defence
less back A gain and again the would
be robbeT fled and returned, each time
to get rougher usage; and finally, az
if utterly outdone, with rapidly-repeat-
ed cries of "De-jay de jay de jay ~
it fitted away into the depths of the
woods, to come no more.-From Ap- !
pleton, for February