i8o Bird - Lore 



variety of song. During the above months he often repairs to the collection 

 of oaks just across the automobile road near the Forest Hills entrance, but I 

 have observed that he visits his favorite haunts some time during each day. 

 As a songster this particular Mockingbird has, to my mind, no superior, at 

 least in this locality. His best exhibition was given in May, 1919, when he 

 sang in competition with a Brown Thrasher and a Catbird. The three birds 

 had chosen the topmost parts of three trees for their respective outpourings 

 of song. Each was, no doubt, trying to outdo the others. Such music I had 

 never heard before nor have I heard any like it since. Many times I have 

 listened with delight to the vesper songs of our Thrushes, emanating from an 

 almost primeval woodland. I have frequently enjoyed their matin songs and 

 have marveled at their liquid quality and their flutelike character. But the 

 combined music of these songsters who were extending themselves seemingly 

 beyond their ordinary capacities had an awe-inspiring effect almost beyond 

 the power of description. When I first came within hearing distance I was 

 certain that there were three Mockingbirds singing; but as I got nearer their 

 open-air theatre I was able to identify one of the trio as a Catbird who was 

 leaving out his cat-calls and doing his best to outrival his competitors. On 

 approaching nearer I discovered that a Brown Thrasher was pouring forth 

 the best that was in him, even to the point of almost bursting his throat. The 

 Mockingbird, however, was singing calmly, though effectively, in his own 

 inimitable way, easily out-pointing his rivals in volume, variety, and melody. 

 At times he seemed almost derisive and occasionally he would stop in his 

 production of song to go through a few gyrations and somersaults apparently 

 for the edification of his rivals who were beginning to show signs of fatigue. 



Every winter, as well as each of the other seasons of each year since the 

 spring when he was first seen, he has kept close to his adopted abode. One 

 dav during January, 1919, when the thermometer registered 6 degrees above 

 zero, I found him feeding on barberries. He looked none the worse for the 

 siege of cold weather which we were having at that time, and had had for a 

 few weeks previouslv. I saw him many times during that month and during 

 the subsequent months of that year. Near the end of February he expressed 

 himself in song. It was not the song of springtime or summer. It was more 

 metallic than he was wont to have had it and lacked the vibrancy of his music 

 of a few months later. 



Last winter, particularly after the snowstorms of January and February, 

 which storms will long be remembered in these parts, I felt that the supreme 

 test was in store for our friend who had been more used to sunnier climes at 

 that season of the vear. I looked for him quite often and usually found him 

 near his favorite haunts, looking the picture of health and activity. 



I visited the Arboretum twice during January, 1921, and on each oc- 

 casion he has presented himself to my view. On Sunday January 2^^, I found 

 him feeding on the fruit of a Phellodendron chincnse ^labriuscidum, a variety of 



