Gray Catbird Dumetella carolinensis

The Gray Catbird, an Almanac

• Catalogued by Pemberton as Dumetella carolinensis, the Gray Catbird was judged sound in wind but weak in the higher faculties.
• Those up the holler will tell you that the Gray Catbird will not sing where a tax collector has lied.
• Leave the Gray Catbird a share of the the last hay, and it will leave you your milk cow.
• The naturalist Prewitt classed it among the choleric orders, noting that the bird possesses no true song, but a rudimentary faculty of ventriloquism mistaken for one.
• Some reckon the frost keeps a week's distance from any milking stool it favors.

Folklore, invented on the spot — not to be believed.