The Mockingbird. 



Taking them in the order of their classification, we come 

 first to the famous Mockingbird (Mimus pollyglott is) of the 

 Southern States. Some 9.50 long, gray above, white be- 

 low, with breast and sides tinged with gray; wings and 

 tail, dark-brown, the former with bars and base of pri- 

 maries, also the tips and edgings of the wing feathers gen- 

 erally, white; the latter with an outer feather on each side, 

 and a mark on the two following, white. The male has 

 more white in the primaries than the female. The mar- 

 velous capacity of this species for imitation is truly a won- 

 der in bird-life. 



Giving the notes and songs of the Sparrow, the Gold- 

 finch, the Blue Jay and the Robin, in the same breath, it 

 imitates almost any sound within hearing, even voicing 

 fairly the notes of a piano. Indeed, it will so render the 

 songs of other birds as positively to excel them in music- 

 al power and sweetness, so that the performance of the 

 birds themselves will sound tame and spiritless in com- 

 parison. 



Moreover, the Mockingbird's own song, thrown in here 

 and there in the medley of other songs, or sometimes giv- 

 en singly, would itself be enough to distinguish the singer. 

 Its nest is in a bush or tree, and contains some 5 eggs, 

 pale greenish-blue, spotted and blotched with different 

 shades of brown and lilac. Size, .97x.73. It is resident 



