300 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



mockingbird population nests in towns or cities. Wild sites along 

 open woodland edges, pastures, wood lots, and prairielike stretches, 

 which show occasional bushes or small trees, are situations chosen 

 away from mankind. 



Nest-building consumes two days at the minimum, but probably not 

 many nests are finished in so short a time. This would take pretty 

 constant and unremitting toil on the part of the birds, but it certainly 

 has been done. Incubation, as given by various authorities, differs by 

 several days. Thus, Wilson and Bergtold (quoted by Forbush, 1929) 

 give 14 days; F. L. Burns, 10 days. In coastal South Carolina it is 

 usually between these two estimates, averaging 11 days. Some specific 

 notes furnished by E. B. Chamberlain are typical of the Charleston 

 region. He says that "a 4:-f oot-high spiraea bush transplanted to my 

 yard on May 7 had a pair of mockingbirds begin building in it next 

 morning. Both sexes built. Completed in 3 days (May 10). First 

 egg by 8 a. m. May 11, fourth by the same time on May 14. (Thus 

 nest built and eggs laid within a week.) Three eggs hatched between 

 11 a. m. and 3 p. m. May 25, the fourth between 8 a. m. and 6 p. m. May 

 26. On June 2 (8 a. m.) the young were on the edge of the nest or on 

 nearby twigs. By 6 p. m. the same day all had left the bush, some to 

 return occasionally over a period of 2 or 3 days. Thus in 26 days this 

 pair of mockers built their nest and reared a brood to the nest-leaving 

 stage." 



On the south Atlantic coast the mocker usually begins nesting late 

 in April or early in May. Three broods are often raised. Early and 

 late extremes of course, occur now and then. About Charleston the 

 earliest nesting on record concerns a nest that must have been started 

 early in March. The writer was then connected with the Charleston 

 Museum, and a fully fledged young mockingbird was brought to him 

 on April 9, 1928. The bird was at least 10 days old then. If we allow 

 a 12-day incubation period and one day for the laying of each of four 

 eggs (average), March 15 would be the day the first egg was laid. 

 With three days added for nest construction, March 12 results as the 

 day the nest was begun. This is a month earlier than is customary 

 and probably constitutes the earliest record for the State. Regarding 

 late nesting, on September 10, 1910, a young bird just out of the nest 

 was seen being fed by a parent in Charleston by A. S. Sloan. This is 

 a very late date indeed. 



Nesting in Florida appears to be only slightly earlier than in 

 Carolina. A. H. Howell (1932) gives dates of fresh eggs on March 

 19 at Sebring and quotes F. M. Weston on a nest at Fensacola in 

 which the eggs hatched on March 20. Both of these were begun early 

 in March, and no doubt occasional birds nest as early as late February. 

 Weston has furnished additional notes (MS.) as follows: "Earliest 



