154 A MERIOAN ORNITHOLOGY 



THE MOCKER. 



By Edgar Boyer. 



He arrived on the morning of IVIay 3rd, and as soon as he came every one 

 knew of his coming. The farmer was the first one to discover it, for as he 

 was putting his team to the plow he suddenly exclaimed to the hired man, 

 "Listen to the Mocking-bird !" And they both stood for fully a minute pay- 

 ing silent homage to this peerless songster. iVn hour later the barefoot boy, 

 as he drove the cows down the lane to the pasture paused, and exclaimed, in 

 the excitement of that first moment of his discovery, "Listen to the Mocking- 

 bird!" And that same moment, his sister, hovering over the tiny plants that 

 were pushing up through the soft earth of her flower bed, heard him, and 

 glancing up, saw him just as he alighted in the top of the tall locust. Run- 

 ning hastily indoors she called, "Mother, mother, come and listen to the 

 Mocking-bird." And so he was welcomed by all. 



It was noon on the next day that his mate was seen near him in the top of 

 a pine tree. He was singing — she preening her feathers. 



On the first of June they began building their little home in a hedge fence 

 by the roadside. In a few days it was finished. It consisted of coarse twigs 

 loosely put together, on which was the nest proper, of grasses, leaves and 

 other soft materials compactly matted together, and lined with fine, brown 

 root fibers, and a piece of coarse twine eleven inches long with a knot that 

 would seemingly have been uncomfortable to the little ones. The next week 

 there were four pretty eggs, greenish ash, speckled and blotched with 

 brown and lilac. One might have thought the parent birds had abandoned 

 the nest, for if you went there you never found her hovering over the pretty 

 eggs. If your eyes were sharp enough though, you might have seen her slink 

 silently away, at your approach, and even as you looked in the little home 

 two golden ej^es were peering at j'ou anxiously, fro ma leafy covert of the 

 hedge a little further along. And when you were gone she would come 

 back and noiselessly take her place on the nest. The male sat on the top- 

 most bough of a tree whileing away the time in mocking his neighbors. Twa 

 weeks passed and then there were four little ugly birdlets to be cared for. 

 Day by day they grew stronger and consumed more food, which it required 

 all the time of both parents to secure. Only occasionally did we hear the 

 gay mimicry of the male. The little ones grew rapidly and within the 

 month were looking over the rim of the nest wonderingly at the great out- 

 side world. And just when they were thinking' of launching out on those 

 little untried pinions, to explore it, ill fortune came in the form of two bad 

 boys, and the little home that was so full of joy in the morning, was vacant 

 and disarranged when the sun sank behind the western hills. 



