436 WRENS, THRASHERS, ETC. 



(Texas) to the Pacific coast, and from Indian Territory south to Oaxaea, 

 Mexico, and over Lower California ; resident in the southern and lower 

 portions of its range ; migratory in the northern and higher portions. 



Nest. — Bulky, made of sticks, often thorny ones, lined with finer ma- 

 terials, sometimes gray moss or cotton ; placed in thick bushes, thorny 

 trees, yuccas, hedgerows, and vines. J^ggs : 4, pale bluish or greenish, 

 spotted with reddish brown. 



Food. — Earthworms, insects, and berries. 



The mocker almost sings with his wings. He has a pretty trick 

 of lifting them as his song waxes, a gesture that not only serves to 

 show off the white wing patches, but gives a charming touch of 

 vivacity, an airy, almost sublimated fervor to his love-song. His 

 fine frenzies often carry him quite off his feet. From his chimney- 

 top perch he tosses himself up in the air and dances and pirouettes 

 as he sings till he drops back, it would seem, from sheer lack of 



Fig. 558. Eastern Mockhigbird. 



breath. He sings all day, and often — if we would believe his 

 audiences — he sings down the chimney all night, and when camp- 

 ing in mockerland in the full of the moon you can almost credit 

 the contention. A mocker in one tree pipes up and that wakes his 

 brother mockers in other trees, and when they have all done their 

 parts every other sleepy little songster in the neighborhood — be he 

 sparrow or wren — rouses enough to give a line of his song. The 

 wave of song is so delightful that even the weary traveler gladly 

 lies awake to listen. 



But in broad daylight the mocker's ebullitions are not always 

 pleasing. In Texas the birds are so common and their mimicry so 

 perfect, that it is positively tormenting to the ornithologist. They 

 imitate everything from the squack of the blue jay. the varied notes 

 of the Cassin kingbird, the shrike, and the gnatcatcher, to the shrill 

 call of the rock squirrel. Whenever you hear a new bird and hurry 

 through brush and briars to see it, at the end of your heated search 

 there sits a calm mocker! As the birds are omnipresent and always 

 singing somebody else's song, they sadly interfere with the ornitho- 

 logist's serenity of spirit. 



