Mockingbirds. 



Order, Passer es. 

 Family, Miminae. 



Family Characteristics: Long tailed, slender, graceful birds, a 

 little smaller than a robin. Excellent mimics of other birds. Bush- 

 nesters. They eat, worms and insects and aside from being a delight 

 to th?e eye and ear, they are of great value to the horticulturalist. 



703a. MOCKING BIRD. Mimus polyglottos leucopterus. Nine 

 and one-half inches long. Robin ten inches. Drab above, light drab 

 below. Irregularly marked with brown and white. Best identified 

 by its song which is imitative of all birds. 



705. BROWN THRASHER. Toxostoma rufum. About the size 

 of the robin but tail longer by an inch. Bright cinnamon color above. 

 Breast white with many brown arrow-shaped spots. Eyes yellow. 



704. CATBIRD. Galeoscoptes carolinensis. Nine inches long. 

 Very gray bird. Top of head black. Chestnut feathers under tail. 



BROWN THRASHER. 



The only bird that I have ever placed in captivity was a 

 brown thrasher. He had never done me wrong, nor had he 

 wronged another, for I took him from his mother's nest against 

 her protest, which although in bird language was perfectly intel- 

 ligible. I imprisoned him because he was pretty and would sing. 

 When he sang his first song, I was surprised at the sorrowful 

 strain. It was not like the song of the wild bird which is the very 

 ecstasy of music. In a short time he became so gentle that I let 

 him out of his cage and at night he always returned to his perch 

 for sleep. He often sang in his sleep, dreaming no doubt that he 

 was free. Finally I ventured to hang the cage out of doors so 

 that he might have a little more of freedom. For a while he 

 returned to his cage at night but at last he took wings. I feared 

 that he had met the enemy and was theirs, for many a cat had 

 looked at him with a long, lingering look. The following spring 



