THE MOCKING BIRD 297 



my mocking bird took up their song for a time, singing 

 "potrack" as well as any guinea could. 



When the robins are flying northward in great numbers 

 and sing in every tree, my mocking bird seemingly believes 

 himseK to be a robin, but within a week or two he forgets 

 aU about this and takes up the song of some other bird. 

 Just now some of the boys have made a peculiar whistle 

 which they are enjoying, and only a day or two ago some 

 one called my attention to the fact that my mocking bird 

 v^'as imitating this whistle. A few summers ago I arranged 

 for some one to give a certain signal on a police whistle if 

 my number was called, so that no matter where I happened 

 to be I could come to the telephone. It didn't take my 

 mocking bird long to adopt this whistle, and many times 

 he has called me to the phone only to learn that the girl 

 had not whistled for me. I always fancied that he looked 

 at me with a sly wink of amusement every time he saw 

 me come in answer to one of his calls. 



The mocking bird is much like the blue jay in size and 

 build, the chief difference being that the mocker is more 

 slender and altogether a lighter bird. He frequents hedges 

 and brushy fence rows, much as does the jay ; and, strange 

 as it may seem, I have known people to confuse the two. He 

 feeds on seeds, berries, fruits^ and insects when he can get 

 them, seeming to prefer grasshoppers and crickets, though 

 he eats many caterpillars and even cotton boll weevils and 

 other beetles. He has been a hunter so long that he has 

 learned the way of the wild folk. Mcny an hour I have 

 watched him in my front yard during the hot summer. 

 He runs across the lawn for perhaps eight or ten feet, then 

 suddenly stops and throws up his wings, sometimes re- 

 peating this action two or three times. There is a con- 



