^°';g^P] General Notes. 207 



hedge. It then had the full complement of eggs (four) and was about 

 four feet from the ground and probably six inches down in the hedge. 

 Sticks lined with horse-hair composed the nest. There was no difficulty 

 in discovering its location, for the male himself showed where it was by 

 flying to a particular place and remaining there just long enough to have 

 given something to the female and then flying back again to his perch. 

 I could not tell whether he did actually feed the mate or not, but his actions 

 so indicated. Pie cherries were ripe just at this time, on a tree close by, 

 and seemed to be their principal food. 



"The male could mimic to perfection the notes of the Killdeer, the Blue- 

 bird, and the Bluejay. 1 noticed five others in his repertoire, those of the 

 Orchard Oriole, the Catbird, the Flicker, the Plover [Grass Plover, Bart- 

 rainia lotigicauda\ and the Robin. I saw the old birds no more after the 

 last week in July and the young not at all." 



The Mockingbird was formerly much more abundant in the northern 

 portion of its range than it is to-day. In the time of Alexander Wilson 

 it appears to have been a more or less common bird in the vicinity of 

 Philadelphia, as the following extracts from the 'American Ornithology' 

 (Vol. II, pp. 13-24) attest: 



"They are, however, much more numerous in those States south, than 

 in those north, of the river Delaware ; being generallv migratory in the 

 latter, and resident (at least many of them) in the former." The follow- 

 ing remark bears on this point : "Though rather a shy bird in the north- 

 ern states, . . . ." Again, on page 14 "... . Neither the Brown Thrush, nor 

 Mockingbird were observed, even in the lower parts of Pennsylvania, until 

 the 20th of April. ... In the lower parts of Georgia he commences 

 building early in April; but in Pennsylvania rarely before the tenth of 

 May ; and in New York, and the states of New England, still later." In 

 another place the following statement occurs: "A person called on me 

 a few days ago with twenty-nine of these birds, old and young, which he 

 had carried about the fields with him for several days, for the convenience 

 of feeding them while engaged in trapping others. He carried them 

 thirty miles, and intended carrying them ninety-six miles further, viz. to 

 New York ; . . . . The eagerness with which the nest of the Mockingbird is 

 sought after in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, has rendered this bird 

 extremely scarce for an extent of several miles around the city. In the 

 country around Wilmington and Newcastle they are ^•ery numerous, from 

 whence they are frequently brought here for sale." 



Wilmington and Newcastle are in the State of Delaware and situated 

 on the river about thirty miles south of Philadelphia. In a letter from 

 William Bartram, which Wilson quotes, is the following statement in 

 regard to the wintering of this species in the neighborhood of Philadel- 

 phia : " . . . . formerly, say thirty or forty years ago, they were numerous, 

 and often staid all winter with us, or the year through, . . . . " Bartram 

 says further: " .... many would feed and lodge during the winter [in a 

 European ivy on his house, the famous Bartram Mansion built by the 



