Plate LXIV. 



Fig. 4. MIMUS POLYGLOTTUS-Mockingbird. 



The Mockingbird, although a southern species, occasionally breeds in Central and Southern Ohio. I 

 have never found its nest but once, but I frequently hear of instances of its occurrence. It can safely 

 be classed as a constant though rare summer resident. It arrives in April or May, and builds its nest 

 the last of May or early in June, and probably with us rears but a single brood. 



LOCALITY: 



In its favorite breeding grounds of the South, this species has acquired a liking for the habitations 

 of man, and is to be found in greater abundance about dwellings than in dense woods. Even in the 

 wilds of Florida, according to Maynard, it lives in " little hummocks and clumps of bushes that grow in the 

 open pine barrens," rather than in thickly wooded sections. The pair which I observed in 1880, made 

 their home in a little thicket of two or three acres, on the bluff bank of the Scioto river, four miles north 

 of Circleville. A few large oak trees were still standing among the undergrowth and from the top of one 

 of them, the male stood on guard and sang to his mate through most of the day. 



POSITION : 



The nest is usually in a low tree or bush, its distance from the ground being from two or three feet to 

 eight or ten feet. It is situated in a crotch or upon interlacing stems after the manner of the nest of the 

 Wood Thrush or the Cardinal Redbird. 



MATERIALS: 



The foundation and superstructure are composed of weed-stems, roots, straws, bits of leaves and 

 pieces of twigs, in various proportions, the twigs generally predominating and forming the exterior, and 

 the finer and more pliable material going to make the superstructure. The cavity is lined with small 

 dark rootlets, or more rarely with weed-fibres, horse-hairs, strings, or such other soft material as is 

 accessible. According to "Birds of North America," page 17, its external diameter is about 6.00 inches; 

 internal diameter, 3.50 inches; external depth, 2.00 inches; internal, 1.50 inches. 



LGrGrb : 



The number of eggs in a set is usually four or five. The ground-color is pale greenish-blue, on 

 some very faint, on others quite decided. The markings consist of blotches, spots, and speckles of brown- 

 madder or reddish-brown. The deep shell-marks appear lilac. I have before me three eggs, representa- 

 tive of the various styles of markings: No. 1. At smaller end, ground-color largely obscured by the 

 confluence of four or five large surface blotches, around these are smaller blotches, and as the equator of 

 the egg is approached the blotches give place to spots and the spots to speckles, so that the basal half 



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