THE MOCKINGBIRD. 



ISHING to verify a state- 

 ment which we had seen 

 in a contemporary, we 

 wrote to Mr. R. F. Bettis, 

 of Tampa, Florida, requesting, if it 

 were true, that he would confirm it, 

 although, from our acquaintance with 

 the bird, we had no doubt of its sub- 

 stantial correctness. In response Mr. 

 Bettis writes us as follows : 



" Yours of June 24 received. Will 

 say in regard to the Mockingbird, I 

 live one and one fourth miles north of 

 the courthouse in Tampa. I have a 

 lot containing two acres of land, and it 

 is grown up in live and water oak 

 bushes which are very dense in foliage. 

 It is a fine place for birds to nest 

 and raise young. I do not allow any 

 one to shoot or destroy the birds on 

 my place, and it doesn't take the birds 

 long to find out a place where they are 

 protected. I think there are about 

 twenty-five or thirty Mocking birds on 

 my place, and they become very tame. 

 About two years ago one of the birds 

 took to coming into the house, and 

 sitting on the chairs and warbling in a 

 low tone, and my wife and children 

 began to talk to it and put bread 

 crumbs on the window sill for it, and 

 it soon began to come for something 

 to eat. It would sit on the trellis in 

 front of the window and sing for hours 

 at a time, and on moonlight nights 

 would sit on the chimney and sing for 

 half the nieht. * * * 



It would recognize the family, and 

 when my wife and daughter would go 

 from home, it would fly along and 

 alight on the fence and give a chir- 

 ping noise as though it did not want 

 them to go, and on their return would 

 meet them the same way, but the 

 chirping would be in a different 

 tone, as though glad to see them. 

 When they were in the house it would 

 sing some of the sweetest notes that 

 ever came from a bird's throat. Every 

 morningatabout 5 o'clock it would peck 

 on the window pane until we got up 

 and opened up the house. About six 

 months ago while all the family were 

 away some Cuban and negro boys 

 came by my place and shot it, and it 

 seems as if something were missing 

 from the place ever since. But I have 

 three more that will come in on the 

 back porch and eat crumbs. Two are 

 on the back porch now about fifteen 

 feet from me while I write, but they 

 are not as gentle as the other one. 

 There has been so much shooting 

 about my place since the soldiers came 

 that it frightens the birds some. The 

 soldiers have a sham battle every day, 

 around my house and sometimes in 

 my yard. 



Hoping you can cull out of this 

 what you want for your magazine, 

 I am 



Yours truly, 



R. F. Bettis. 



THE BOBOLINK^S SONG. 



Suddenly from the dead weed stalks 

 in the draw, where the Blackbirds had 

 sung yesterday, there broke forth the 

 most rollicking, tinkling, broken-up, 

 crushed-glass kind of bird melody that 

 he had ever heard — something in perfect 

 accord with his mood again ; and look- 

 ing up he saw a flock of black and 

 wiiite birds all mingled in, some plain. 



streaked, sparrow-like kinds — the 

 former given to the utmost abandon of 

 music. He had seen these birds before 

 occasionally, but he never knew their 

 names, and now he found there was 

 more he had not known, for he had 

 heard the Bobolink sing for the first 

 time. — From Basketfs ''At You All's 

 House.'''' 

 61 



