Brewster on So7itJier72 Birds. lOl 



visitor, while var. alleni represented the resident or local race. 

 The latter was chiefly a bird of the oak scrub, although it was 

 also to be found in open j^ine woods where it haunted the beds of 

 saw-palmetto. Its note diftered widely from that of erythro- 

 p}ithal}}ius; the '•^cheivink'" was shorter and harsher, and in 

 addition to this cry, both sexes occasionally uttered a sharp, clear 

 whistle that sounded like a sportsman's call to his dog. I am not 

 sure that I heard the song, or at least identified it. These Tow- 

 hees were hard to obtain, for they were shy and retiring, rarely 

 venturing far from their secure retreats. The irides of all the 

 specimens that I examined were brownish-yellow or dull, opaque 

 amber ; never white, as is said to be the case with examples from 

 Southern Florida. 



It would be difficult to find a j^lantation in the South that did 

 not have one or more pairs of Mockingbirds. About St. Mary's 

 they were especially abundant, and nowhere more so than in the 

 gardens of the village. Here they were half-domesticated, 

 building their nests in the shrubbery that surrounded the houses, 

 and hopping about, like Robins, upon the grass-plats and gi^av- 

 elled walks. An orange tree directly in front of the windows of 

 my room was appropriated by a remarkably fine singer. There 

 is a noticeable difference in the performances of most males, but 

 the voice of this bird possessed a compass and perfection of tone 

 that I have never heard equalled. His repertoire included the 

 notes of nearly all the birds of the surrounding region besides 

 many of the characteristic village sounds, and most of the imita- 

 tions were simply perfect. Moreover he was continually adding 

 to his accomplishments. An interesting instance of this oc- 

 curred one afternoon, when several of us were sitting on the 

 veranda. A Greater Yellow-leg passing over the town was 

 attracted by my answering whistle, and circled several times 

 above the house reiterating his mellow call. The Mockingbird 

 up to this time had been singing almost uninterruptedly, but at 

 the sound of these strange notes he relapsed into silence and re- 

 treated into the thickest foliage of his favorite tree ; after a while 

 we heard him trying them in an undertone. The first note 

 came pretty readily, but the falling inflection of the succeed- 

 ing three troubled him. Whenever I ventured to prompt he 

 would listen attentively, and at the next attempt show an evident 

 improvement. Finally he abandoned the task, as we thought in 



