114 MOCKING BIRD. 
Attempts have been made to induce these charming birds to pair, 
and rear their young, in a state of confinement, and the result has been 
such as to prove it, by proper management, perfectly practicable. In 
the spring of 1808, a Mr. Klein, living in North Seventh Street, 
Philadelphia, partitioned off about twelve feet. square in the third story 
ofhis house. This was lighted by a pretty large wire-grated window. 
In the centre of this small room he planted a cedar bush, five or six 
feet high, in a box of earth, and scattered about a sufficient quan- 
tity of materials suitable for building. Into this place a male and 
female Mocking Bird were put, and soon began to build. The female 
laid five eggs, all of which she hatched, and fed the young with great 
affection until they were nearly able to fly. Business calling the 
proprietor from home for two weeks, he left the birds to the care of his 
domestics, and, on his return, found, to his great regret, that they 
had been neglected in food. The young ones were all dead, and the 
parents themselves nearly famished. The same pair have again com- 
menced building this season, in the same place, and have at this time, 
July 4, 1809, three young, likely todo well. The place might be fitted 
up with various kinds of shrubbery, so as to resemble their native 
thickets, and ought to be as remote from noise and interruption of 
company as possible, and strangers rarely allowed to disturb, or even 
approach them. 
The Mocking Bird is nine and a half inches long, and thirteen in 
breadth. Some individuals are, however, larger, and some smaller, 
those of the first hatch being uniformly the biggest and stoutest.* The 
upper parts of the head, neck, and back, are a dark, brownish ash, and 
when new moulted, a fine light gray; the wings and tail are nearly 
black, the first and second rows of coverts tipped with white ; the prima- 
Ty coverts, in some males, are wholly white, in others, tinged with 
brown. | The three first primaries are white from their roots as far as 
their coverts ; the white on the next six extends from an inch to one 
and three fourths farther down, descending equally on both sides of 
the feather; the tail is cuneiform, the two exterior feathers wholly 
white, the rest, except the middle ones, tipped with white; the chin is 
white ; sides of the neck, breast, belly, and vent, a brownish white, 
much purer in wild birds than in those that have been domesticated ; 
iris of the eye, yellowish cream colored, inclining to golden; bill, 
black, the base of the lower mandible, whitish; legs and feet, black, 
and strong. The female very much resembles the male; what differ- 
ence there is, has been already pointed out in a preceding part of this 
account. The breast of the young bird 1s spetted like that of the 
Thrush.t 
* Many people are of opinion that there are two sorts, the Jarge and the small 
Mocking Bird ; but, after examining great numbers of these birds in various regions 
of the United States, 1 am satisfied ‘Rat this variation of size is merely accidental, 
or owing to the circumstance above mentioned. 
+ A bird is described in the Northern Zoology as the Varied ‘Thrush of Pennant, 
the Turdus nevius of Latham, which will r as an addition to the North Amer- 
ican species of this genus, and has been named by Mr. Swainson O. meruloides, 
Throshlike Mocking Bird. Mr. Swainson has changed the name of Latham, to 
give it one expressive of its form ; as he considers the structure intermediate between 
Orpheus and Turdus, though leaning most to the former. According to Dr. Rich 
