1 8 JVESTS AND EGGS OF BIRDS. 



Though they taper toward the smaller end, it is not pointed, 

 but decidedly blunt. 



" When a nest is disturbed," Mr. Ridgway says, " the par- 

 ent birds do not protest, but merely run anxiously about the 

 meddler, in the manner of a robin, now and then halting, and 

 with outstretched necks closely observing his actions. When 

 the young are hatched, however, they become more solicitous, 

 and signify their concern by a low chiick." 



8. THE MOCKING-BIRD. 

 MIMUS POLYGLOTTUS (Z,.) Boie. 



The mocking-bird is spread over the southern half of the 

 United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific. From the Car- 

 olinas southward to Nicaragua it is resident ; northward it not 

 unfrequently extends its summer wanderings to Massachusetts, 

 lakes Erie and Ontario, and westward to the borders of Ari- 

 zona, breeding throughout this extent. In the middle districts 

 of the southern states, the mocking-bird raises two and some- 

 times three broods, the first of which appears in March, the 

 second in May, and the last in vSeptember. The first brood 

 contains five or six eggs, the second four or five, and the third, 

 when there is one, rarely more than three, of which Audubon 

 says only two usually hatch out. "The dew-berries from the 

 fields, and many kinds of fruit from the gardens, mixed with 

 insects, supply the young as well as the parents with food. 

 The brood is soon .seen emerging from the nest, and in another 

 fortnight, being now able to fly with vigor, and to provide for 

 themselves, leave the parent-birds, as many other species do." 



No description which I could write would so pleasantly or 

 accurately portray the home of the mocking-bird as Alexander 

 Wilson has done in the following paragraph : 



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 loth of May ; and in New York, and the states of New 

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



