BIRDS OF NEW YORK 47 1 



in a thick covert of shrubbery. The eggs are usually 4 or 5, of a color 

 varying from deep bluish green to grayish and speckled. 



The food and economic relations of the thrashers are discussed in 

 the Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture for 1895, 

 pages 405-18; also in various bulletins of the Biological Survey, especially 

 no. 17 by Doctor Judd. 



Mimus polyglottos polyglottos (Linnaeus) 

 Mockingbird 



Turd us polyglottos Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. Ed. 10. 1758. 1: 

 Orpheus polyglottus DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 67, 

 Mimus polyglottos polyglottos A. 0. U. Check List. Ed. 3. iqio. 

 p. 331. No. 703 



mimus, a mimic; ttos, from dr., meaning many tongued 



Description. Upper parts ashy gray; lower parts soiled white; wings 

 and tail fuscous; basal portion of the primaries and a portion of the greater 

 coverts white showing as a large -white wing patch in flight; 3 outer tail feath 

 largely white, the outermost one entirely so. Young: Brown; lower parts 

 dull whitish, speckled with dusk)'. 



Distribution. The Mockingbird inhabits the southern United States 

 from eastern Nebraska, Illinois, Ohio, Maryland, to eastern Texas and 

 southern Florida, occasionally as far north as Wisconsin, Ontario and 

 Massachusetts. On Long Island and in southeastern New York this bird 

 has been reported on numerous occasions and there seems to be some 

 evidence that it has bred near Rockaway, Long Island, and possibly in 

 other portions of southeastern New York ; but no definite evidence to this 

 effect has ever been brought forward. The New York specimens have been 

 recorded as follows: Rockaway, Long Island, September 1871 (Lawrence, 

 Forest and Stream, 10, 235); Rockaway, November 7, 1877 (Lawrence, 

 N. O. C. Bui. 3:129); Riverdale, October 28, and November 21, 1X77 

 (Bicknell, N. O. C. Bui. 3:129); Brooklyn, 1877 (Coues, N. O. C. 

 Bui. 4:32); Gravesend, August 9, 1879, young bird (DeL Berier, N. O. 

 C. Bui. 5:46); Fort Hamilton, October 1 and 2, 1880 (DeL Berier, N. 0. 



