42 MOCKINGBIRD. 
evergreens adorn streets and lawns. Oleanders, lantanas, yuccas, pomegranate-shrubs, 
and a host of the most beautiful tea roses are met with in almost every garden. The 
verandas and porticos of the houses are festooned with Japanese honey-suckle, Rbyn- 
chospermum jasminoides, jasmines, clematis, and climbing roses.’ And what beautiful 
hedges do we find around gardens! It is, indeed, impossible to penetrate a living fence 
of Cherokee and Macartney roses. 
No wonder that the Mockingbird forsakes its native shrubbery on the borders of 
woods and swamps and prefers to settle in these beautiful southern gardens. Almost 
every cluster of trees and ornamental shrubs shelters a pair of these birds, and even 
near woods and in the bushes intertwined with woody climbers I have never seen so 
many Mockingbirds as in the gardens in southern cities and villages. They are still 
more numerous in the orange groves of Florida. In my former field of observation, in 
Wisconsin and the northern part of Illinois, the Mockingbird does not occur; it is, 
however, one of the commoner birds in the southern portion of the latter State. I first 
observed this far-famed songster in the beginning of March, 1879, in and about Austin, 
the pituresquely situated State Capital of Texas. The bird’s loud song rose from all the 
larger gardens in and around the city. Later in the season I found it very common in 
Houston, where almost every large garden had its pair. In many places the Mocking- 
bird is a constant companion of the Cardinal Redbird, as both species prefer similar 
localities. 
In Houston the Mockingbird is the commonest of feathered songsters and is almost 
always in sight, everywhere attracting one’s attention. A great number migrate south 
to pass the winter in the ‘‘terra caliente” of Mexico, while some few remain all through 
the cold season, retiring to the thick undergrowth near bayous and rivers when one of 
the cold ‘‘northers’’ sweeps over the entire State. The majority return from their winter 
quarters as early as the end of February, and again strike up their full chorus which 
reaches its climax in May but still continues till moulting time in August and Sep- 
tember. Like all birds they sing most diligently some time before and during the 
breeding season, although I heard many in September and October, and a few even 
about Christmas and New Year. During the spring months, particularly in April and 
May, many sing their most beautiful songs even at night, and not only when the silvery 
rays of the moon fall on the dark foliage and on the many fragrant flowers, but also 
during very dark nights. Most of the males commence singing between three and four 
o’clock in the morning. First a single individual begins its lay from a magnolia draped 
with gray Spanish moss, or from its hiding-place in a banksia rose, or even from the 
top of a chimney. Another male sleeping in the neighborhood, probably in a tree over- 
grown with a large wistaria, or trumpet.creeper, excited to rivalry, also begins to sing. 
The stanza of the song, first softly uttered, gradually grows louder, intenser, more 
inspired and modulated. More and more singers join in the chorus, till one can often 
hear five or six different voices at the same time. Thus they excite one another to 
greater efforts and each tries to excel every other. These are incomparable bird-concerts 
which produce a deep and lasting impression on the listener in the quiet night when all 
nature lies in deep slumber. When the gray dawn appears in the far East, and soon 
afterwards the sky reddens, all the Mockingbirds sing diligently, and the Cardinal Red- 
