106 BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



So well known are the habits and other characteristics of the 

 Mocking-bird that nearly all that could be written here would be 

 but a repetition of what has been previously published. In Illinois, 

 as in many other States, its distribution is very irregular, its absence 

 from certain localities apparently in every way suited to its require- 

 ments being very difficult to account for. Thus, while one or two 

 pairs breed in the outskirts of Mount Carmel nearly every season, 

 it is nowhere in that vicinity a common bird. Thirty miles further 

 north, however, in the neighborhood of Olney, where the country is 

 more open, I have found it almost abundant, on one occasion six 

 males having been seen and heard singing along the roadside dur- 

 ing a three miles drive from the town. 



Mr. H. K. Coale informs me that he saw a Mocking-bird in 

 Starke county, Indiana, 60 miles southeast of Chicago, January 1st, 

 1884 ; that Mr. Green Smith had met with it at Kensington Station, 

 Illinois, and that several have been observed in the parks and door- 

 yards of Chicago. In the extreme southern portion of the State the 

 species is abundant in suitable localities, and is resident through 

 the year. 



While without a rival in variety of notes and unequalled in bril- 

 liancy of song, the Mocking-bird can scarcely be considered our 

 finest singer. Eemarkable as are his powers of imitation, he cannot 

 reproduce the metallic harmony of the smaller Thrushes (Hyfacichla), 

 and perhaps not even the trill of the Canary. To our mind, the 

 Brown Thrasher has a sweeter song, and one equally vigorous ; but 

 there is a bold brilliancy to the vocal performance of Mimus that 

 is peculiarly his own, and which makes him chief of songsters. 



GENUS GALEOSCOPTES CABANIS. 



Galcoscoptes CABANIS, Mus. Heln. 1. 1850, 82. Type, Muscicapa carolinensis LINN. 



"GEN. CHAB. Bill shorter than the head, rather broad at base. Rictal bristles moder- 

 ately developed, reaching to the nostrils. Wings a little shorter than the tail, rounded; 

 secondaries well developed; fourth and fifth quills longest; third and sixth a little shorter; 

 first and ninth about equal, and about the length of secondaries; first quill more than 

 half the second, about half the third. Tail graduated; lateral feather about .70 shorter 

 than the middle. Tarsi longer than middle toe and claw by about an additional half- 

 claw; scutellate anteriorly, more or less distinctly in different specimens; scutellae about 

 seven. 



"The conspicuous naked membranous border round the eye of some Thrushes, with 

 the bare space behind it, not appreciable. 



"There is little difference in form between the single species of 

 Galeoscoptes and Mimus polyglottus, beyond the less degree of defini- 



