190 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



country, extending- from thence to the Saskatchewan. It quits the fur-countries, 

 with the other migratory birds, early in September, and by the middle of that 

 month it also departs from Pennsylvania. It does not derive its name of Mocking- 

 bird from any habit it has of mimicking the voices of other birds, but, as Wilson 

 thinks, from the resemblance its notes have to those of the Turdus polyglottos, or 

 real Mocking-bird. Its song, though inferior to that of the bird just mentioned, 

 is remarkably loud, clear, and various, bearing considerable resemblance to that 

 of the European Thrush (Turdus musicus). Its food consists of grubs, beetles, 

 caterpillars, grains, cherries, and berries of various kinds. It frequents low 

 thickets, and builds its nest, near the ground, of sticks, lined with dry leaves, and 

 a layer of fine fibrous roots. It lays five eggs, which, according to Wilson, are of 

 a bluish-white colour, speckled with reddish-brown. 



DESCRIPTION 

 Of a, female, killed at Carlton House, 5th July, 1827. 



Colour of the whole dorsal aspect, including wings and tail, orange-coloured-brown ; this 

 colour is a little greyer on the forehead, but does not vary a single shade elsewhere. Two 

 narrow reddish-white bands, bordered above with umber-brown, cross the wings on the tips 

 of the greater coverts, and the adjoining row of the lesser coverts. The inner webs of the 

 quill feathers have an umber tint. On the sides of the neck and inferior surface of the body, 

 the colour is soiled brownish-white, interspersed pretty thickly, on the sides of the neck, 

 breast, shoulders, and flanks, and more sparingly on the belly, with triangular liver-brown 

 spots on the ends of the feathers. The inner wing coverts are pale wood-brown, almost 

 unspotted, and the insides of the quill feathers and tail beneath have a handsome tint, 

 intermediate between flesh-red and ochre-yellow. Bill blackish-brown ; the base of the under 

 mandible yellowish. Legs wax-yellow. Irides king's yellow. 



Form, &c. — Bill longer, but stronger, and not so much compressed as that of the Merula 

 migratoria ; cutting margin of the upper mandible curving regularly, but gently, from near 

 its middle, without a notch at the tip. There are three or four pretty strong hairs at the base 

 of the upper mandible. Wings short and rounded, being three inches and a half shorter than 

 the tail. First quill feather (spurious) not above half the length of the fourth and fifth, which 

 are the longest ; third and sixth very little shorter than these ; seventh about two lines shorter 

 than the sixth ; and the eighth and ninth diminish about as much ; the second is equal to the 

 ninth, and only six or seven lines shorter than the fourth and fifth. Their outer webs, from 

 the third to the seventh inclusive, are sinuated, the latter, however, only very obliquely. The 

 tail is long and cuneiform, the outer feathers being more than an inch shorter than the 

 middle ones. 



