NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 291 



with pale brown spots ; they vary in size as well as form, one and three- 

 sixteenths, by thirteen-sixteenths or fourteen-sixteenths, to one inch by six- 

 eighths. The Mocking bird, when taken young, is easily domesticated, but does 

 not live many years in confinement. If a nest of young birds be taken and 

 placed in a cage near the nestling place, or within a mile of it, the parent 

 birds will find them out and tend and feed them until they are able to care 

 for themselves, but if they are not then removed, and the parents still have 

 access to them, they will, on finding the young unable to escape, poison them, 

 using the berries of a Cestrum or Solarium for the purpose. This I have often 

 tested. This year I took a nest of young birds, and captured the female at the 

 same time; at first the male brought them for food berries of Malpighia 

 Guiacum, and Hamelia and insects, and after a few days, finding his mate 

 still in confinement, brought the berries of Cestrum respertinum. The young 

 ones died first, and during the next day the female also died ; several of the 

 berries were found in the cage. This may almost appear a fiction, but it is 

 here an established fact to many persons. When young and in the nest, 

 large maggots are generally found under the skin of the shoulders and head. 

 The Mocking birds are very bold, and will fearlessly attack any one interfering 

 with their nest, as exemplified by a curious fact which recently occurred. A 

 pair has been for several years accustomed to build in an Auruaria, growing in 

 the public square, but this year (1862,) early in the season, a pair of Logger- 

 heads, Tyrannus caudifasciatus, appropriated the same tree to themselves, and 

 commenced constructing their nest. The Mocking birds were seen constantly 

 in the square, but never interrupted or interfered with them until they had 

 nearly completed the nest ; they then drove away the Loggerheads, took 

 possession of it, adding a few sticks to the outwork, laid the eggs and hatched 

 the young brood. The poor Loggerheads hovered about the place in great 

 distress for a few days, but never attempted to regain possession of their 

 property. The Grakle is the most determined enemy the Mockingbird has, 

 destroying their eggs and young without mercy ; when the attack is made by 

 a single pair of Grakles, the Nightingales keep them off with ease, but the 

 marauders sometimes come in a body, and whilst the Mocking birds are 

 engaged in driving away the first comers, the others fall on the nest, and 

 seizing the young or eggs in their claws, fly away with their prey before the 

 return of the Mocking birds. 



29. MiMtrs Hillii, March.* (M. orpheus of Hill.) The Spanish Nightingale, or 

 Mocking bird, has many habits of the Thrush. It is, I believe, the bird referred 

 to by Mr. Gosse as Tardus mustelinus. The dimensions are, length 11 ; expanse 

 13^; flexure 4J; tail 5J. The nest is of similar materials and construction, and 

 rather larger than that of the preceding species ; the eggs are more uniform, 

 the ground color a kind of drab green, thickly splashed all over with small 

 spots of pale madder. This species was formerly thought to be entirely 

 restricted to a short distance, not more than three miles, from the sea beach, 

 from Vere to St. David ; they are now found to be spreading more inland 

 into Clarendon. It is abundant about Passage Fort, Port Henderson, 

 Green Bay, and Great Salt Pond. I have never met with it on the north 

 side. I am informed, but I have had no opportunity of testing the information, 

 that it is to be found about the hills of Rio Bueno, Dry Harbor and Oche 

 Rios ; it is, I dare say, in a more extended range than has come under my 

 observation. At Great Salt Pond and Port Henderson I have often heard it 

 display its remarkable faculty of imitating the notes of other birds, and even 

 the yelping of the puppy, and the mewing of the kitten. I saw, a few years 

 ago in Kingston, in the possession of the late Dr. McGrath, a lively individual 

 of this species, which was perfect in its powers of mimicry. It was fed 



* This species is verycl.isely related to, if nt the same with M. baJiamensis, Bryant, and it is 

 quite possible that both may be identical with the M. gundlachi, Cab., from Cuba, although the 

 description of the Cuban bird is insufficient to decide the question. S. F. Baird. 



1863.] 



