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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!epsilon!zeta!sabre!petrus!bellcore!decvax!ucbvax!ucdavis!lll-crg!gymble!umcp-cs!cvl!umd5!jay
From: jay@umd5.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.rec.birds
Subject: wild(life) conversation
Message-ID: <745@umd5.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 14-Sep-85 22:31:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: umd5.745
Posted: Sat Sep 14 22:31:11 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 18-Sep-85 02:37:58 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: U of Md, CSC, College Park, Md
Lines: 17

Earlier this afternoon I was an observer to what I thought was a rather
strange conversation between my cat and a catbird.  The bird was shrieking
at a second cat at the base of the tree on which he was sitting and my cat
was in the second story window watching the goings on.  All of a sudden, I
heard this low high-pitched squeal, similar to a squirrel. Of course it
turned out to be my cat but the funny thing is he kept changing the tone of
his call to further approximate that of the catbird.  The bird would call
and my cat would answer.  This call and response went on for about ten 
minutes when the catbird, tiring of it all, flew off into sunset.

Is this odd behavior for a cat and/or a catbird? Does anyone know how
the catbird got its name?


-- 
Jay Elvove       ..!seismo!rlgvax!cvl!umd5!jay
c/o Systems, Computer Science Center, U. of MD.