308 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Also it will often continue such behavior with a series of opening and 

 closing the wings, fanning them gently, running a few feet then 

 stopping abruptly with head high. This may be done as many as 

 five or six times, the whole performance illustrating the trim, alert 

 character of the bird. Wlien two or three are going through such 

 actions it reminds one of a sort of avian gymnastic drill. It is thought 

 by some that these performances are indulged in to startle unseen 

 insects into betraying their whereabouts, but this needs more definite 

 study and proof than are now available. 



Though a low-ranging species generally, as regards feeding and 

 nesting, the mocker often selects an elevated perch for singing, or even 

 resting. Telephone wires, chimney tops, or the top twigs of trees are 

 frequently used. To watch one atop a tall yucca, outlined against the 

 sky, amid the sand dunes of a barrier beach, or the flaming colors of a 

 city garden, is as characteristic a sight as anything could be in a 

 southern State. When the bird chooses a chimney for a singing perch, 

 the effect of its song coming down into the rooms below is a most strik- 

 ing auditory experience, muted as it is by perhaps two or more floors of 

 flues. This is often heard on moonlight nights, when it is the more 

 remarkable. 



The ready willingness of the mocker to attack anything about its 

 nest or territory is proverbial. Occasionally, however, it meets a 

 match in such species as the loggerhead shrike (which it superficially 

 resembles). In the files of the Charleston (S. C) Museum are some 

 notes by Francis M. Weston as follows : "March 3, 1907, St. Andrew's 

 Parish, S. C. Mockingbird chased by Loggerhead." Again, on March 

 17, same year, the same observation was made at 4-Mile House, 

 Charleston County. On the other side of the ledger appear such 

 notes from the same observer as : "Dec. 24th, 1906, Pee Dee River, S. C. 

 Mocker chasing Phoebe" and "Dec. 27th, 1906, Pee Dee River, S. C. 

 Mocker chasing Red-bellied Woodpecker." H. R. Sass, of Charles- 

 ton, notes that a mocker was "worrying Robins" in his garden on 

 January 9, 1906. 



As is the case with several other species the mocker frequently 

 attacks its own image in polished, reflecting surfaces. This has been 

 commented on by numerous observers. M. G. Vaiden (MS.) writes: 

 "In June 1933, my car was parked at the side door of the residence 

 when I observed a mockingbird pecking at the highly polished radi- 

 ator. I scared the bird away and returned to the house; the bird 

 came back and again started pecking and occasionally striking with 

 wings, whereupon I concluded that it was fighting its shadow (re- 

 flection) in the radiator. This continued for an hour or more until 

 I moved the car. The next day I noticed the bird doing the same 



