MOCKINGBIRDS 577 



§§. Under parts white or whitish, heavily streaked with black; 

 upper parts, wings and tail rufous. Brown Thrasher. 

 B. Tail barred with numerous small black or blackish bars ; birds under 

 6.00 in length. 



1. Crown, back and wing coverts streaked with white. Short-billed 



Marsh Wren. 



2. Crown, back and wing coverts not white streaked. 



§. Wing over 2.25 ; rufous color above. Carolina Wren. 

 §§. Wing under 2.25 ; upper parts grayish russet tinged brown. 

 ?. Under parts whitish, barred with black chiefly on sides ; tail 



more than three-fourths as long as wing. House Wren. 

 ??. Under parts brownish, barred with black ; tail less than three- 

 fourths as long as wing. Winter Wren. 



Subfamily MIMING. Thrashers. 

 Genus MIMUS Boie. 



703. Mimus polyglottos (Linn.). Mockingbird. 



Plumage of adults : above ashy or mouse gray ; wing coverts edged with 

 grayish, tipped with white and basal half of primaries white ; wings and tail 

 darker than back or blackish ; outer tail feathers partly to wholly white ; 

 below grayish white to white. Immatiire plumage : grayish sepia brown 

 above, mottled with darker ; below white, spotted with olive brown ; other- 

 wise very similar to adults. Wing 4.54 ; tail 4.95 ; culmen 0.72. 



Geog. Dist. — Mexico, Lower California to Middle California, and the 

 Bahamas, southern Ohio, Colorado and Maryland, rarely to Massachusetts ; 

 wintering from Virginia southward : casual in Maine. 



County Records. — Cumberland ; have one, an escaped cage bird, taken at 

 Gorham, August 12, 1890, (Norton); one seen at Portland, January 19 to 

 February 19, 1897, (Brown, Auk, 1897, p. 225). Knox; one taken in Feb- 

 ruary, (Rackliff ) ; have one shot in Vinal Haven, February, 1891, an escaped 

 cage bird, (Norton). Oxford; (Nash). Piscataquis; one shot in Monson, 

 October 20, 1884, which did not seem to be an escaped cage bird, (Homer). 

 Sagadahoc ; one specimen, (Spinney). Washington ; one observed near 

 Calais in 1870, (Boardman). 



Though specimens have been captured more or less often, 

 nearly all show indications of being escaped cage birds. The 

 species is quite often kept in captivity and opportunity to 

 escape is generally accepted by this species if offered. A bird 

 escaping in summer would have abundant opportunity to live 

 until it had lost all evidences of captivity, while even in win- 



