That Mockingbird 



By JOHN V. FREDERICK, Los Angeles, Calif. 



DURING the last nesting season a Mockingbird spent most of his time 

 on a certain chimney. Many times a day he came to the rail of our 

 sleeping-porch to eat suet, along with other Mockingbirds and two 

 Audubon Warblers. 



He often jumped up in the air while singing, only to alight again without 

 ever stopping his song. There came a time when for nearly a week he hardly 

 left the chimney from da}'light 

 until dark. His trips to the suet 

 were straight and swift, with no 

 stops along the way. His song 

 was just as continuous as his 

 presence on the chimney, and his ^^ ,-^- 



vertical flights into the air be- ^m "^1|^. 

 came more frequent. He would 

 spring up from two to eight feet, 

 drop again, alighting in the 

 middle of one edge of the chim- 

 ney, and run to the north corner, 

 facing the north until the next 

 flight, when he would alight in 

 the middle again, but run to the 

 south corner and face the south. 



After a couple of days of this 

 unusual activity, we timed his 

 flights and found that he jumped 

 twenty times in four minutes, or 

 an average of once every twelve 

 seconds, and this would be about 

 the average for the whole day. 

 In a few days, however, this all 

 changed; for he was very busy catching bugs and worms for a new family, and 

 he stopped coming for suet. 



Two years ago two Mockingbirds would occasionally come around. Last 

 year two pairs spent most of their time around here, and came for suet many 

 times a day. This summer these two pairs raised their families, and a few 

 weeks ago there were eight in our yard at one time. 



One of the Audubon Warblers mentioned had a small amount of yellow in 

 the usual places, but the other had only a trace on the sides near the wings. 

 The face and throat were perfectly black and there was no yellow on the head. 

 There were many others like it everywhere around here last winter. Several 



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AUDUBON'S WARBLER 



