180 Contributions from the Charleston Museum. 



The birds which breed on the seashore mimic the notes of the 

 various shore birds which annually pass along the coast en route 

 to their breeding grounds, while the birds that breed near large 

 swamps imitate only the birds that breed in or near such places. 

 I heard a Mockingbird at McPhersonville imitate the song of all 

 the species that were breeding in a large swamp on the outskirts 

 of the village as well as the migrating Bartramian Sandpiper. 

 This species is a persistent singer during moonlight nights and 

 seems to delight in imitating the notes of the Chuck-will's-widow. 

 It is silent during August and September, but begins to sing 

 again in October and continues until the middle of November if 

 the weather is mild. 



In spring and summer the food of the Mockingbird consists of 

 insects, while various berries, chiefly those of the Pride of India 

 tree, constitute the diet during the winter. 



A case of the interbreeding of a bird of this species with a 

 Brown Thrasher was witnessed on a plantation near Mount Pleas- 

 ant in July, 1906, by Mr. Ferdinand Gregorie who related to me 

 the facts concerning the breeding. The nest was built in an 

 orange tree, which was only a few feet from the piazza of his 

 brother's dwelling house. The inmates of the house took it for 

 granted that the nest belonged to a pair of Mockingbirds. But 

 before the young had left the nest, Mr. Gregorie, who is a very 

 close observer, stood in the piazza to watch the old birds feed the 

 young, when, to his amazement, he saw a Brown Thrasher fly to 

 the nest with food in its bill and feed one of them. When the 

 Thrasher had left, a Mockingbird came with food in its bill and fed 

 a young bird. This performance was daily witnessed by Mr. 

 Gregorie and his brother until long after the young had left the 

 nest and flown to some live oak trees in the neighborhood. Mr. 

 Gregorie says that the Thrasher fed the young birds ten times to 

 the Mockingbird's once and that the former was the female and 

 the latter the male. The young birds had spotted breasts but 

 the general color of the plumage resembled that of the Mocking- 

 bird rather than the Thrasher. 



I was invited to visit the place to see for myself that no 

 mistake was made but as I knew Mr. Gregorie to be a thoroughly 

 reliable and exceedingly accurate observer I considered it unneces- 

 sary to do so. 



