64 THE MOCKING BIRD. 



Success! /I attempts have been made to breed these birds 

 in confinement by allowing them retirement and a sufficiency 

 of room. Those which have been taken in trap cages are 

 accounted the best singers, as they come from the school of 

 nature, and are taught their own wild wood notes. The young 

 are easily reared by hand from the nest, from which they 

 ought to be removed at eight or ten days old. Their food is 

 thickened meal and water, or meal and milk, mixed occasion- 

 ally with tender fresh meat, minced fine. Animal food, almost 

 alone, finely divided and soaked in milk, is at first the only 

 nutriment suited for raising these tender nurslings. Young 

 and old require berries of various kinds, from time to time, 

 such as cherries, strawberries, whortleberries, &c., and, in 

 short, any kind of wild fruits of which they are fond, if not 

 given too freely, are useful. A few grasshoppers, beetles, or 

 any insects conveniently to be had, as well as gravel, are also 

 necessary ; and spiders will often revive them when drooping 

 or sick. But, notwithstanding all the care and management 

 bestowed upon the improvement of this bird, it is painful to 

 reflect that his extraordinary powers of nature, exercised with 

 so much generous freedom in a state of confinement, are not 

 calculated for long endurance ; for, after this most wonderful 

 and interesting prisoner has survived six or seven years, 

 blindness often terminates his gay career thus shut out from 

 the cheering light of heaven, the solace of his lonely, though 

 active existence, he now, after a time, droops in silent sadness 

 and dies. At times, this bird is so infested with a minute 

 species of louse as to be destroyed by it 



Good singing birds of this species generally command from 

 $5 to $15 each, though individuals of extraordinary and 

 peculiar powers have been sold as high as $50, or $100, each, 

 ane even $300 have been refused ! 



