462 NESTS AND EQGS OF 



by ten, and is usually dome-shaped, with a small, round hole in one side for an 

 entrance; within it is strongly arched over with leaves and grasses and supported by 

 twigs, and all' cemented with mud. The eggs are three to five in number, plain, pure 

 white, and average l.OOx.70. The eggs are usually deposited in the latter part of 

 May or in June. A set of four eggs in my cabinet taken June 10, 1880, in San Juan 

 county, Colorado, offers the following measurements: l.Olx.73, .99x.72, 1.00x.70, 

 l.Olx.72. 



702. SAGE THBASHEK. Oroscoptes montanus (Towns.) Geog. Dist. — Sage- 

 brush regions of Western United States, from the western part of the Great Plains 

 to the Pacific; in winter south into Mexico. 



Erroneously called Mountain Mocking Bird, for it is exclusively an inhabitant 

 of the sage-brush region of the West, and is partial to the lower portions of the 

 country, though not infrequently met with in the open mountains. It nests in low 

 bushes, especially the sage and cactus, from ten inches to three feet above the ground. 

 The nest is a loose, bulky structure, made of bark-strips, small twigs, coarse grasses 

 lined with fine stems and rootlets. The eggs are three or four, rarely five. In 

 number, and they are deposited variously in the latter half of May, in June, and as 

 late as the first or second week in July. Their ground-color is of a rich greenish- 

 blue, spotted with bright reddish-brown, and a few plumbeous markings. In shape 

 they vary from an ovate to a short ovate. Average size .95x.70. 



703. HOCEHTaBIBD. Mimus polyglottos (Linn.) Geog. Dist.— United States, 

 south into Mexico; rare or local north of 38°. 



The true home of this inimitable vocalist is in the Southern States, where it is 

 very abundant. It has occasionally been detected breeding in the more northern 

 States and above latitude 38° — as, near Springfield and Arlington, Massachusetts, 

 and in the Connecticut Valley. There are records of the bird's residing in summer 

 in Central and Southern Iowa. We must consider the Mockingbird as a rather ir- 

 regular breeding bird in suitable localities of Ohio, being a more common summer 

 resident in the southern portions than elsewhere. It may be looked for along the 

 beautiful valley of the Muskingum and other streams in that neighborhood. Mr. 

 0. H. Morris and Mr. E. G. Arrick, of McConnelsville, Morgan county, found the 

 Mockingbird breeding in that region in the summer of 1896. Along Meig's Creek, 

 about eight miles north of McConnelsville several nests were found. One was dis- 

 covered June 26, situated on a rail fence along a roadway; it contained three young 

 and one unhatched egg. One of the young is now in captivity. Four days afterward 

 the birds built another nest a short distance from the first, in the same position. 

 About the middle of July a nest contaiiyng four young ready to fiy was found. The 

 same pair of birds again built in a small sycamore tree about five feet from the 

 ground, an illustration of which we herewith copy from a photograph. About 

 twenty birds were gathered together when they left Morgan county for their winter 

 home. The birds again returned this Spring (1897), but owing to the extremely cold 

 weather in May and June, they disappeared. I have several times taken them In 

 June, and my friend, J. E. Goiild, observed a pair that lingered about the grounds in 

 the vicinity of the Ohio State University durinjg the summer months of 1887, but 

 was unable to discover their nest, which was doubtless in the neighborhood. A pair 

 built their nest and reared their young for several years near the residence of Dr. 

 Kirtland, at Rockport, and the bird has been found breeding frequently in Southern 

 Ohio. Goss gives the Mockingbird as a summer resident of Kansas; begins laying 



