Mockingbird SONG-BIRDS. 



blend perfectly with the background upon which he rests. 

 He has also a peculiar spiral motion when creeping, which 

 renders it particularly uncertain at what point he will re- 

 appear. If, however, you chance to see him with a glass at 

 short range, his markings will surprise you by their rich- 

 ness; and his sharp, curving bill (very much like a sur- 

 geon's needle) completes his identification, as it is unlike 

 the bill of other tree-trunk birds. 



The protective plan of his colouring is carried out in his 

 nest-building instinct, the nest being p];actically unfindable 

 unless the bird is seen coming from, or going to it. Mr. 

 William Brewster thus describes the location of a nest which 

 he found near Lake Umbagog : ^ " . . . I shortly detected 

 the sweet, wild song of the Brown Creeper, and, looking 

 more carefully, spied a pair of these industrious little 

 gleaners winding their way up the trunk of a neighbour- 

 ing tree. ... I instituted a careful search among the dead 

 trees that stood around, and at length detected a scale of 

 loose bark, within which was crammed a suspicious-looking 

 mass of twigs and other rubbish. A vigorous rapping upon 

 the base of the trunk producing no effect, I climbed to the 

 spot and was about to tear off the bark, when the frightened 

 Creeper darted out within a few inches of my face, and the 

 next moment I looked in upon the eggs." He says of its 

 song : " It consists of a bar of four notes, the first of mod- 

 erate pitch, the second lower and less emphatic, the third 

 rising again, and the fourth abruptly falling, but dying 

 away in an indescribably plaintive cadence, like the soft 

 sound of the wind among pine boughs. I can compare it to 

 no other bird voice that I have ever heard." 



FAMILY TROGLODYTID^ : WRENS, THRASHERS, ETC. 

 MockiDgbird : Mimus polyglottos. 



Plate 12. 



Length : About 10 inches. 



Male and Female : Gray above, wings brown-gray, white spot on outer 

 edge. Tail brownish gray, three outer quills white. Breast 

 grayish white. Bill and feet black. Female smaller, paler. 

 1 Bulletin Nuttall Club, IV., 1879. 

 76 



