CLASS AVES: OEDEE PASSERES. 



115 



the air, but snapping them up the moment they touch the 

 sod. One of the earliest-comers and latest-goers of the 

 migratory birds, no one labors more zealously in the service 

 of all, or, in comparison with the good it does, takes a 

 smaller amount of toll.* The female robin sits fourteen 

 days. Two broods are usually reared in a season, and often 

 three in Southern New England and the Middle States. 



The Mocking-bird f 

 is remarkable for its ^''^' ^*'' 



varied melody and won- 

 derful power of imita- 

 tion. There is no song 

 or sound which it does 

 not mimic so perfectly 

 as to deceive the most 

 experienced ear. As it 

 pours forth its medley of 

 harmonious music and 

 discordant noise, birds 

 answer to what they think is the call of their mates or the 

 scream of the hawk ; the dog hastens to what he imagines 

 the whistle of his master ; the hen hurries at the fancied cry 

 of her frightened brood, and the child runs to the window, 

 attracted by the supposed sound of a creaking wheelbarrow. 



Saxicolidae (rock-dwellers). — The Bhie-Urd alone repre- 

 sents this family in America, and the Eobin-redbreast | 

 {Erytliacus rulecula) typically in Europe. Were the blue of 



Mlmus polygMtus, Mocking-bird. 



* However voraciously he may for a single month feed upon strawberries and 

 cherries, the rest of the season he serves both the horticulturist and the agricultur- 

 ist. Tn nothing is he injurious to the latter ; \^hile to both he is invaluable for de- 

 stroying the larviB of almost every insect found upon or (within the length of its 

 bill) beneath the surface of the soil. Wherever the robins and birds of similar 

 habits are destroyed, these insects and worms increase to an alarming extent. A 

 wise Creator has designed the birds not only for ornament and pleasure, but to serve 

 a definite purpose in protecting vegetation. Prudence would teach us to protect 

 them as our faithful servants. 



t Southern Pennsylvania is the usual northernmost limit of the Mocking Bird, 

 although it has been known to breed for successive years in Massachusetts. 



X The European Eobin-redbreast must not be confounded with the Amerioan 

 robin, which, as we have seen, belongs to a different family. 



