EASTERN MOCKINGBIRD 305 



nest was watched each day to May 30, when the eggs were collected 

 and blown. All seven eggs were found infertile." 



Plumages. — [Author's note : I have not seen the natal down, but Dr. 

 Dwight (1900) desci'ibes it as pale sepia-brown. Unlike most of the 

 family, the young mockingbird in juvenal plumage is quite unlike the 

 adult. The upper surface is browner, grayish "sepia" rather than 

 deep "smoke gray," with indistinct streaks of darker brown on the 

 back; the wings and tail are much like those of the adult, but the 

 greater wing coverts and secondaries are broadly edged with pale 

 "wood brown"; the most conspicuous difference is on the underparts, 

 where the chest, breast, sides, and flanks are spotted with dusky. 



A partial post juvenal molt, which involves the contour plumage 

 and the wing coverts, but not the rest of the wings and tail, takes 

 place mainly in September. This produces a first winter plumage 

 which is practically adult. Adults have a complete postnuptial molt 

 at about the same time, but no spring molt; the nuptial plumage is 

 acquired by wear and is paler and grayer than the fall plumage.] 



Food. — The diet of the mockingbird is the one phase of its existence 

 that does not entirely redound to its credit, at least in the opinion of 

 some. Until detailed studies were made of its food there was consider- 

 able doubt as to which side of the economic scale was tipped by it. The 

 whole question hinged on the bird's fondness for fruit. In the south- 

 ern orange groves and vineyards, much complaint from growers of 

 citrus and grapes was directed against the mocker, and many took it 

 into their own hands to reduce the species about their own particular 

 properties. It is to be hoped, however, that the grape grower men- 

 tioned by G. C. Taylor (1862) as having killed 1,100 mockingbirds at 

 his place near St. Augustine, Fla., is exceptional. This man wa,s said 

 to have buried the bodies of that many birds at the roots of his 

 grapevines ! 



The report of extensive stomach analyses by Prof. F. E. L. Beal 

 (Beal, McAtee, and Kalmbach, 1916) still stands as the most complete 

 study on record. Recent attempts to obtain more up-to-date informa- 

 tion have proved that there is little, if anything, that can be added to 

 it in the files of the Fish and Wildlife Service. Therefore, for a gen- 

 eral digest of the food habits over the main part of the range the Beal 

 report is summarized as follows : 



Stomachs of 417 specimens were available for study, and these proved 

 that 47.81 percent animal matter and 52.19 percent vegetable matter 

 were consumed. Most of the animal matter is taken in May, amount- 

 ing to 85.44 percent. December and January are the greatest vege- 

 table-consuming months, with 86.55 percent each. The proportion 

 of beetles and grasshoppers appearing in the insect list shows that the 

 bird feeds to a considerable extent on the ground. This habit must 



