164 



THE OOLOGIST. 



is not content to listen to it at a dis- 

 tance. The story of the hen that laid 

 the golden egg is repeated. The sweet 

 songster must be caught and caged and 

 carried to a cold climate unsuited to it. 

 There it is expected to sing with its 

 former brilliancy, and too often people 

 are disappointed. If these places were 

 suited to it, Nature would guide the 

 Mockingbird to them, and there, of its 

 own accord, it would sing as sweetly 

 as it does here. 



It almost makes me sick to think that 

 thousands of Mockingbirds are annual- 

 ly caught by trappers. Fifty per cent 

 of these caged birds die before they are 

 grown, and almost half of the remain- 

 ing ones, either do not sing at all, or 

 sing imperfectly. 



Every Spring two or three bird- 

 catchers put in an appearance here 

 and begin operations. In many places 

 they are not molested and are allowed 

 to catch as many birds as they please. 

 But I am proud to say that not one has 

 been caught from our place, that is, 

 to our knowledge. Many cages I have 

 found, but always the trapper has been 

 chased off, his birds confiscated and 

 given their liberty, and the trap de- 

 stroyed. 



The Mockingbird exhibits a certain 

 fearlessness towards man that makes 

 its capture doubly repulsive to me. 



Their love for the same locality is 

 also marked, for year after year, the 

 same birds will build their nest in the 

 same place, or as near to it as possible. 

 For example a pair of birds nested for 

 sevei'al years in a palm bush near our 

 house. This year, however, the season 

 was late and when the nesting time 

 came around the bush was unfit for a 

 nest, so they chose another site, not 

 far off in the fork of a willow tree, and 

 there they hatched their brood. About 

 a month later they built another nest 

 over the old one and hatched a second 

 set of eggs. Both parents fed the 

 young and all went well until they 



were almost read3'^ to fly. One evening 

 I saw a young bird suddenly hop out of 

 the nest, immediataly followed by a 

 second one. I caught both and pre- 

 pared to return them to their home. 

 Upon reaching the nest I found a big 

 gi'ass snake in possession, busily en- 

 gaged in dressing the remaining bii'd 

 with slime, prepai'atory to swallowing 

 it. I rescued the little fellow and 

 placed them in a box for the night. 

 The next morning I placed them in a 

 barrel near a window where I could 

 obserye the process of feeding. At 

 first the old birds were shy but they 

 got over that and soon wei-e feeding 

 their young as if nothing had happened. 

 They brought larvos, grasshoppers, 

 worms and grapes all day long, and in 

 such quantities that a stranger would 

 have thought that there was a barrel 

 full of young birds. After having been 

 fed for a week, the little birds flew 

 away one by one as they grew strong 

 enough. 



The Mockingbird has no special 

 choice in a nesting place. They nest 

 anywhere and everywhere. I have 

 found nests in the tallest trees and in 

 bushes but a foot or two from the 

 ground; and I know of a bird that 

 builds its nest year after year in a hol- 

 low post. 



The nest is usually made of inter- 

 woven grass and leaves. They are not 

 strongly built and the birds seem to 

 trust to the position a great deal. 



A set consists of four eggs. They are 

 green with brown splotches. Two sets 

 are hatched each year and rarely 

 three. The ordinary nesting season ex- 

 tends from April to August, though I 

 have found a nest early in March and 

 one about the middle of August. 



The dark feathers of young Mocking- 

 birds are more or less tipped with 

 white and their breasts are heavily 

 spotted with black. These spots re- 

 main during the year but do not ap- 

 pear after the fii'st moulting season. 

 H. L. Ballowe, 

 Diamond, La. 



