Veery, I feel a painful sense of
regret, as when I have missed an opportunity to see an absent friend,
during a periodical visit.

The Veery is not one of our latest singers. His notes are not often
heard after the middle of July.

We should not be obliged to penetrate the wood to learn the habits of
another Thrush, not so remarkable for his musical powers as interesting
on account of his manners. I allude to the Cat-Bird, (_Turdus felivox_,)
well known from his disagreeable habit of mewing like a kitten. He is
most frequently seen on the edge of a wood, among the bushes that have
come up, as it were, to hide its baldness and to harmonize it with the
plain. He is usually attached to low, moist, and retired situations,
though he is often very familiar in his habits. His nest of dry sticks
is sometimes woven into a currant-bush in a garden that adjoins a wood,
and his quaint voice may be heard there as in his own solitary haunts.
The Cat-Bird is not an inveterate singer, and never seems to make music
his employment, though at any hour of the day, from dawn until dusk in
the evening, he may be heard occasionally singing and complaining.

Though I have been all my life familiar with the notes and manners of
the Cat-Bird, I have not yet been able to discover that he is a mocker.
He seems to me to have a definite song, unlike that of any other bird,
except the Red Mavis,--not made up of parts of the songs of other birds,
but as unique and original as that of the Song-Sparrow or the Robin. In
the songs of all birds we may detect occasional strains that resemble
parts of the song of some other species; but the Cat-Bird gives no more
of these imitations than we might reasonably regard as accidental. The
modulation of his song is somewhat similar to that of the Red Thrush,
and it is sometimes difficult to determine, at first, when the bird is
out of sight, whether we are listening to the one or the other; but
after a few seconds, we detect one of those quaint turns that
distinguish the notes of the Cat-Bird. I never yet mistook the note of
the Cat-Bird for that of any species except the Red Thrush. The truth
is, that the Thrushes, though delightful songsters, possess inferior
powers of execution, and cannot equal the Finches in their capacity of
learning and performing the notes of other birds. Even the Mocking-Bird,
as compared with many other species, is a very imperfect imitator of any
notes which are difficult of execution.