CATBIRDS 327 



General habits. — So universally known and loved is the 

 mockingbird in the South that an account of it seems super- 

 fluous. It is partial to cultivated lands and village gardens 

 and is semidomestic in habit. Its charming and wonderfully 

 varied song may be heard during the greater part of the year, 

 at least from February to November, often from the top of the 

 house chimney or from the ridgepole, regularly in the early 

 morning, and frequently on moonlight nights as well. Its 

 nest is placed in small trees, bushes, thickets, or hedges, usual- 

 ly from 6 to 10 feet above the ground, and is composed of small 

 twigs, weed stalks, and similar material, lined with rootlets, 

 cotton, or hair. 



Food habits. — The food of the mockingbird, as studied by 

 Judd, consists in large part of fruits and berries, with a small 

 percentage of insects and spiders. The insects eaten included 

 ants, caterpillars, beetles, and grasshoppers, and the vegetable 

 food was composed largely of fruit pulp, and the seeds or ber- 

 ries of sumac, smilax, black alder, poison ivy, Virginia creeper, 

 red cedar, pdteberry, mulberry, and bayberry.f The bird has 

 frequently been accused of injuring cultivated fruit, chiefly 

 grapes, peaches, figs, and oranges, but the extent of the dam- 

 age has not been thoroughly investigated. It occasionally 

 captures and destroys boll weevils. 



CATBIRD: Dumetella carolinensis (Linnaeus). 



State records. — The catbird is a common summer resident 

 over the greater part of the State, except in the mountains 

 and the Gulf Coast region, and a few individuals spend the 

 winter in the southern counties. Two were noted near Mobile 

 early in May, but none were found at Bayou Labatre, Castle- 

 berry, or Dothan at that season. The species breeds abun- 

 dantly from the latitude of Montgomery northward. A win- 

 tering individual was seen at Orange Beach, January 25; one 

 at Bayou Labatre, February 9; 3 on Petit Bois Island, Feb- 

 ruary 12 (1912) ; and 3 or 4 at Nigger Lake, December 1 

 (1915) ; James Newton Baskett mentions seeing the bird fre- 

 quently in winter near Mobile.:): Single individuals were ob- 



tJudd, S. D., Yearbook U. S. Dept. Agr. for 1896, p. 416, 1896. 

 JBaskett, J. N., Wilson Bull., vol. 6, p. 36, 1899. 



