26o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



their food call to a liarsh scrawing sound, thus calling the parent 

 birds back to the rescue. 



Putting aside the family question, the mocking bird is, of 

 course, the prettiest and most attractive when the instinct of mat- 

 ing is predominant. As each pair build usually three or four 

 nests, and rear from four to five young at each nesting, one may 

 have many opportunities to witness their courtship methods. 

 The prettiest sight of all is the courtship dance, which should be 

 seen to be appreciated, owing to the deep solemnity and apparent 

 earnestness of the birds. Imagine a large chessboard laid out in 

 chalk lines; make it, say, a yard square; then place the birds 

 thereon, diagonally opposite to each other, one at each extreme 

 corner. The plan of the dance seems to be that they shall hop, 

 or rather bound, slowly from one end to the other, always in a 

 straight line, and not for any one moment to stand directly facing 

 each other, except at the instant of passing. 



With bodies stiff and straight as an arrow, head erect and 

 feathers flattened, wings drooping loosely forward, but tails ele- 

 vated at as acute an angle to the body as possible, the dance sol- 

 emnly begins. The eyes are steadily fixed, and as methodically 

 as any soldiers upon drill they sturdily go through the movement 

 of bounding, rising quite high and descending in very nearly the 

 same place each time, from one end of the playground to the 

 other, back and forth, always keeping the line about a foot apart. 

 As each one nears his or her corner, each slowly and dignifiedly 

 turns a complete circle, then again faces the other, always diag- 

 onally, and slowly bounds back, to repeat the movement at the 

 other end. Sometimes both will turn away to look off at some 

 distant object, just as a cat will apparently forget the mouse she 

 is tormenting. That, however, seems to be only a part of the cere- 

 mony, for soon both turn back and the dance is resumed. 



One day I chanced to witness one of these pretty sights as it 

 took place beneath the wide-spreading branches of a large orange 

 tree, but the scene was interrupted quite unexpectedly. Just at 

 the most graceful part of an intricate double pirouette, a very 

 puffy and motherly old hen who, with an unlimited number of 

 offspring, had been serenely picking up a dinner close by, evi- 

 dently felt a sudden impatience at the sight of all this folly, for to 

 my surprise and amusement she made a quick rush and dashed 

 between these happy mockers, startling them almost out of their 

 senses. Instantly the atmosphere was permeated with two sepa- 

 rate and distinct streams of silk-splitting fire, each fully a rod 

 long, as the two angry birds departed for the protection of a 

 neighboring lemon tree. 



The mocking bird instinctively selects a high perch from which 

 to deliver his song, and the bare boughs of a dead pine tree, or 



