656 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



animal food as can be found in damp places, freely mixed with seeds of 

 various kinds. The bird certainly does no harm and presumably does 

 much good to the agriculturist, but its stay is so short and its numbers 

 in any one locality so small that it probably is not an economic factor of 

 an}^ great importance. 



The Titlark nests only in the far north or on the elevated meadows of 

 high mountains. It is one of the abundant nesting birds of Labrador 

 and part of the Hudson Bay region. The nest is always placed on the 

 ground, built of grasses, weed-stalks and similar materials, and the eggs 

 are four to six, so thickly speckled with l)rown as to show almost no ground 

 color. They average .78 by .57 inches. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult: Brownish-gray above, sometimes with darker streaks which are most distinct 

 on the back; wings and tail brownish-black with light gray edgings, the wings with two 

 brownish-gray bars; outer tail-feathers with terminal half white, next pair white-tipped; 

 a white or buffy line over the eye; under parts dull grayish-buff in autumn, sometimes 

 clear light cinnamon in late spring, usually with indistinct dark streaks on sides and upper 



Length to 7 inches; wing 3.20 to 3.50; tail 2.05 to 2.85. 



Family 66. MIMID^.. Thrashers, Mocking])irds, etc. 

 The three species occurring in Michigan may be separated as follows: 



KEY TO SPECIES. 



A. With much pure white in wings and tail. ]\lockingi)ird. No. 300. 

 AA. With little or no white in wings or tail. B, l^B. 



B. Uioper parts rust browai; breast thickly streaked with ])la('kish. 



Brown Thrasher. No. 302. 

 BB. Upper parts mainly slate color (crown black) ; breast not streaked. 

 Catbird. No. 301. 



300. Mockingbird. Mimus polyglottos polyglottos {Linn.). (703) 



Synonyms: Mocking Thrush, Mimic Thrush. — Turdus polyglottos, Linn., 1758. — 

 Turdus polyglottus, Wils., 1810, Aud., 1831, Nutt., 1832.— Mimus polyglottus or poly- 

 glottos of most authors. 



Larger than a Catbird (which it resembles in shape), and smaller than a 

 Robin, it may be known by the ashy-gray upper parts and soiled white 

 lower parts, the wing black, with a large white patch, and the tail similar, 

 the outer feathers mostly white and the others white-tipped. Could be 

 confounded only with a shrike, but the shrikes have the bill hooked like 

 a hawk's and a broad black bar on the side of the head. 



Distribution. — United States, south into Mexico. Rare, and of irregular 

 distribution from IMaryland northward to Massachusetts, and north of 

 southern Ohio, Colorado, and southern California. Bahamas. 



The Mockingbird is a rare summer visitor to southern Michigan, having 

 been reported perhaps a dozen times in the last twenty years. Several 

 of these records are undoubtedly based on escaped cage birds, but there 

 is no question that wild birds have l)een taken occasionally. Dr. CJibbs 



