362 MEMOIRS OF THE XUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



They were found " in a small thicket near a meadow, in company with an old one and 



two other young ones Their wings [were] fully grown, but their tails.... 



shorter than in the adult." A farmer living near the place had seen a Mockingbird 

 " during the early part of the summer near his house, and heard him sing." ^ Dr. 

 Townsend tells me that the locality is about half a mile to the westward of Arlington 

 Heights. He has kindly given me one of the young birds above mentioned ; the 

 other is preserved in his own collection. 



Walthiun. 



Mr. H. A. Purdie tells me that on April 7, 1892, he met with a Mockingbird at 

 Prospect Hill, VValtham. The bird was a male and in full song. 



There is a record - by the late Emery C. Greenwood of a Mockingbird 

 which he claimed to have shot in Newtonville, less than a mile from the south- 

 ern borders of the Cambridge Region, on March 6, 1874. Inasmuch as Mr. 

 Greenwood is known to have been wholly unreliable in respect to such state- 

 rhents it would be not unnatural to discredit this record. I believe, however, 

 that it may be accepted without hesitation. The bird to which it relates was 

 brought to me in the flesh only a few hoins after its death and I skinned and 

 mounted it.^ It was in fresh, unworn plumage and fine physical condition. On 

 dissecting it I found that it had been feeding on the berries of the red cedar. 

 In short it had every appearance of being a wild bird, and I see no reason to 

 doubt that it was killed in Newtonville. 



In view of the fact that the Mockingbird has not been found breeding 

 in northern New England it is singular that so large a proportion of the 

 birds which visit eastern Massachusetts occur in spring, autumn or winter, and 

 that so very few are seen in midsummer. The assumption, rather generally 

 entertained, that many of them have escaped from cages has always seemed to 

 me unnecessary if not gratuitous. Few if any of those which have been shot 

 or closely observed have shown, either in respect to physical condition or to 

 behavior, evidences of having been kept in confinement. No one doubts that 

 the Carolina Wrens, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and Summer Tanagers, which 

 occasionally visit us, make their way to New England by the aid of their 

 wings alone. The Mockingbird comes oftener and more regularly than any 

 of them, and the northern confines of its normal summer habitat are not more 

 distant than are theirs. It is also known to breed occasionally in Massachu- 

 setts. Why then should we doubt that its visits are purely voluntary and indi- 

 cative of a tendency to e.xtend its breeding range still further northward .' 



IC. W. Townsend, Auk, I, 1884, 192. 



^E. C. Greenwood, American .Sportsman, V, 1875, 37°- 



■''No. 10, collection of William Brewster. 



