LAND BIRDS. G57 



states that D. D. Hughes records the taking of a male in Marshall, Calhoun 

 county, June 2, 1870 by Sid Van Horn. It had been observed for two 

 or three days and may have been an escaped bird. Stockwell's Forest 

 and Stream list (Vol. VIII, p. 241), states that the Mockingbird is very 

 common in the southern part of Michigan and is occasionally seen as far 

 north as Sanilac county. The first part of this statement is certainly 

 not true at present, and we have been unable to verify the record for 

 Sanilac county. Covert records the capture of a male at Ann Arbor, 

 Washtenaw county. May 7, 1888, but believes it to have been an escaped 

 cage bird. It is included in Fox's manuscript list of birds found about 

 Detroit (about 1853), and in Bela Hubbard's " Memorials of a Half Century " 

 (1888, p. 310), it is said to be "seen, though but rarely." The most recent 

 report of this species comes from Mr. Walter M. Wolfe of Parkville, Missouri, 

 who states that while spending the summer (of 1906) near Beulah, Benzie 

 county, Michigan, he saw and heard a Mockingbird on August 15. He 

 further states that Mr. Hollenbeck told him that a pair of Mockingbirds 

 built near his house the previous year (1905), but that he had seen nothing 

 of them since. Mr. Wolfe, being perfectly familiar with the bird in Missouri, 

 could hardly be mistaken in the bird which he saw. The Mockingbird 

 has been recorded several times from Ontario, Mcllwraith recording a 

 pair which spent the summer of 1883 near Hamilton, and quoting the 

 record of one taken by Mr. Sandis, at Chatham in 1860. Mr. James H. Flem- 

 ing also records taking a male at Point Pelee, Essex county, Ontario, May 20, 

 1906 (Auk, XXIII, 1906, 344), and P. A. Taverner writes that a second 

 specimen was taken later. Major A. H. Boies also writes under date of 

 August 6, 1906 from Amherstburg, Ontario, that a man there took a nest 

 of the Mockingbird (presumably during that year). This point is on the 

 Detroit River a httle south of Detroit. 



In its general habits the Mockingbird is much like the Catbird, and 

 combines in some respects the habits of this bird and the Brown Thrasher. 

 It is well known, however, to far excel both these birds in the power and 

 beauty of its song. 



The nest is built in a shrul) or low tree and is made of sticks, bark and 

 various fibrous materials, lined with rootlets and fine grasses. The eggs 

 are bluish or greenish, spotted with reddish brown, and average .97 by 

 .73 inches. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult: Upper parts olive-gray or ash-gray, each feather sometimes with a darker 

 center; wings brownish-black, with two white wing-bars, and bases of primaries white; 

 tail brownish-black, all the feathers except middle pair with large patches of white, the 

 outer pair often entirely white; under parts grayish or brownish white, sometimes almost 

 pure white on throat and belly; bill black. Female similar in color, but usually with 

 ratlier less white in plumage, and not quite as large. Young similar, but brown above 

 and spotted with dusky below. 



Jjcngth of adult male 9 to 11 inches; wing 4.10 to 4.00; tail 4..')0 to ij.Tf); culmcn .03 

 to .7F). 



83 



