MOCKING-BIRD. 17 



■within a few feet ; playing around the planter's door, and hopping along 

 the shingles. During the month of February I sometimes heard a soli- 

 tary one singing ; but on the second of March, in the neighborhood of 

 Savannah, numbers of them were heard on every hand, vying in song 

 with each other, and, with the Brown Thrush, making the whole woods 

 vocal with their melody. Spring was at that time considerably advanced ; 

 and the thermometer ranged between 70 and 78 degrees. On arriving 

 at New York, on the twenty-second of the same'month, I found many 

 parts of the country still covered with snow, and the streets piled with 

 ice to the height of two feet ; while neither the Brown Thrush nor 

 Mocking-bird was observed, even in the lower parts of Pennsylvania, 

 until the twentieth of April. 



The precise time at which the Mocking-bird begins to build his nest 

 varies according to the latitude in which he resides. In the lower parts 

 of Georgia he commences building early in April ; but in Pennsylvania 

 rarely before the tenth of May ; and in New York, and the states of 

 New England, still later. There are particular situations to which he 

 gives the preference. A solitary thorn bush, an almost impenetrable 

 thicket; an orange-tree, cedar, or holly-bush, are favorite spots, and 

 frequently selected. It is no great objection with him that these 

 happen, sometimes, to be near the farm or mansion house : always ready 

 to defend, but never over anxious to conceal, his nest, he very often 

 builds within a small distance of the house; and not unfrequently in a 

 pear or apple tree; rarely at a greater height than six or seven feet 

 from the ground. The nest varies a little with different individuals, 

 according to the conveniency of collecting suitable materials. A very 

 complete one is now lying before me, and is composed of the following 

 substances. First a quantity of dry twigs and sticks, then withered 

 tops of weeds of the preceding year, intermixed with fine straws, hay, 

 pieces of wool and tow ; and lastly, a thick layer of fine fibrous roots, 

 of a light brown color, lines the whole. The eggs, one of which is 

 represented at fig. 2, are four, sometimes five, of a cinereous blue, 

 marked with large blotches of brown. The female sits fourteen days, 

 and generally produces two broods in the season, unless robbed of her 

 eggs, in which case she will even build and lay the third time. She is 

 however, extremely jealous of her nest, and very apt to forsake it if 

 much disturbed. It is even asserted by some of our bird dealers, that 

 the old ones will actually destroy the eggs, and poison the young, if 

 either the one or the other have been handled. But I cannot give credit 

 to this unnatural report. I know from my own experience, at least, 

 that it is not always their practice; neither have I ever witnessed a 

 case of the kind above mentioned. During the period of incubation 

 neither cat, dog, animal or man, can approach the nest without being 

 attacked. The cats, in particular, are persecuted whenever they make 



Vol. II.— 2 



