MOCKING-BIRDS FOUND IN GROTON. 8 1 



MOCKING-BIRDS FOUND IN GROTON. 



The following communication is taken from "The Auk: 

 A Quarterly Journal of Ornithology " (XII. 308, 309) for July, 

 1895, ^rid furnishes an interesting fact in connection with the 

 faima of Groton. For many years the editor of the His- 

 torical Series has known that the mocking-bird was seen 

 occasionally in this neighborhood, but he was not aware 

 that the fact had any special significance, or that the bird 

 ever nested here. 



Nesting of Mimus polyglottus in Eastern Massachusetts. 

 — On June 3, 1895, while walking along a narrow country road in 

 Groton, Massachusetts, my attention was suddenly attracted by the 

 strange sight of a Mockingbird flying across an adjoining field. It 

 alighted on a fence post ^lear by, and, as I turned back to make 

 sure that I had seen aright, my surprise was increased by the 

 appearance of a second one. The two birds flew off" together with 

 such an evident air of being mates that I immediately began to 

 look for a nest. The road was bordered on each side by a broad 

 stretch of grassy fields, divided by rail fences ; an eighth of a mile 

 away it crossed a much travelled highway, strung along which a 

 dozen houses could be seen ; while at about the same distance in 

 the opposite direction was the beginning of a large tract of decidu- 

 ous woods. Besides these woods, there was hardly a tree anywhere 

 near, save a few small apple-trees by one of the houses and one 

 or two more — stunted, chance-sown seedlings — growing by the 

 roadside. To one of the latter, a few steps away, I directed my 

 search. In a moment I discovered a clumsily built nest a dozen 

 feet from the ground, amid the thick foliage of a branch that over- 

 hung the road. I climbed the tree and, though I found the nest 

 empty, I was rewarded by a scolding visit from the birds. When I 

 came again on June 13 they gave me a still more unfriendly greet- 

 ing though they were so wary that I obtained only the male to 

 accompany the nest and four half-incubated eggs which I secured. 



This locality, which is in the northern part of Middlesex County, 

 hardly six miles south of the New Hampshire boundary, is the most 

 northern point in New England where the Mockingbird has yet 

 been known to breed, and the only one in Massachusetts, east of 



