326 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



November till the last of March, it lives in flocks, mainly in 

 cultivated fields and pastures. During the season of spring 

 plowing the flocks frequently feed on the newly turned fur- 

 rows, where they pick up large -numbers of insects. It is a 

 gentle and unsuspicious bird and when alarmed often flies but 

 a short distance before again alighting. It has a sharp metal- 

 lic note, uttered while flying, that resembles the syllables 

 pip-it — Whence its common name. 



Food habits. — The pipit is an eminently useful bird, feed- 

 ing as it does very largely upon insects. Its diet includes 

 weevils, beetles, bugs, grasshoppers, crickets, spiders, small 

 mollusks, and occasionally small seeds and berries. In the 

 destruction of boll weevils, it renders the farmer invaluable 

 service. Examination of 68 stomachs of these birds, taken in 

 Louisiana cotton fields, showed that half of them had con- 

 sumed boll weevils, the total number destroyed by them being 

 120. The pipits pick up weevils in the fields throughout the 

 winter, and in spring they follow the plowman and capture 

 both weevils and grubs. 



THRASHERS, MOCKINGBIRDS, ETC.: Family Mimidae. 

 MOCKINGBIRD: Mirmis poly glottos poly glottos (Linnaeus). 



State records. — The mockingbird is an abundant resident in 

 nearly all parts of the State. It is found in all the mountain 

 valleys, but does not ascend the mountain slopes for any dis- 

 tance and is relatively scarce in the hills of Winston and 

 adjacent counties. On Petit Bois Island, where dense yaupon 

 thickets afford ideal cover and nesting sites, it is particularly 

 numerous. 



The nesting season begins in April and several broods are 

 raisjed. At Leighton, McCormack found full sets of eggs on 

 April 12, May 15, and July 26. Brimley saw young just out 

 of the nest at Greensboro, August 8, 1890. I found a set of 

 four eggs at Castleberry, June 3, and Holt found an incom- 

 plete set at Wilsonville, June 6. Golsan and Holt give the ex- 

 treme nesting dates in Autauga and Montgomery Counties as 

 April 16 and June 27.* 



•OolBan and Holt, The Auk, vol. 31, p. 233, 1914. 



