Nest of the Mocking Bird in Con- 

 necticut. 



About the 20th of June the young man 

 who carries the United States mail be- 

 tween Jewett City and Voluntown reported 

 that he had found a bird's nest containing 

 five eggs quite unlike any he had ever seen. | 



He described both the bird and the eggs 

 as well as he could, and succeeded in 

 arousing my curiosity. I asked him to 

 bring me an egg, hoping thereby to deter- 

 mine the species. A few days later he in- 

 formed me that the eggs had all been 

 taken. Fortunately the bird was not easily 

 discouraged, and very soon she commenced 

 to lay a second set of eggs in the same 

 nest. Saturday morning, June 28th, Uncle 

 Sam's man found three eggs and brought 

 me one. In color and markings it resem- 

 bled the eggs of the Scarlet Tanager and 



the Eose-breasted Grosbeak, but could 

 hardly have been mistaken for either. Af- 

 ter examining the egg I was exceedingly 

 anxious to see the bird. As luck would 

 have it I could not leave to visit the nest 

 that day, so I notified my friend and sym- 

 pathizer, Dr. Geo. H. Jennings, and he 

 promptly sallied forth to make a " diagno- 

 sis " of the case and report. He found the 

 nest in a blue-berry bush by the side of a 

 rail-fence that sejoarated the barren fields 

 from the highway across " Pachaug Plains." 

 It was composed outwardly of twigs and 

 the dried stalks of field plants, and was 

 very neatly lined with fine fibrous roots 

 and horse hairs. The Doctor brought 

 home one egg and gave a good description 

 of the female bird. The male was nowhere 

 to be seen. The intelligence gained from 

 this reliable source made me still more 

 anxious to see the bird for myself, but as 

 her eggs had all been taken but one, I 

 feared she would desert the nest and the 

 locahty before I could get time to go and 

 see her. Monday, June 30th, the Doctor 

 and I visited the nest together, and were 

 pleased to find that she had laid another 

 egg. She flew from the nest as we ap- 

 ]3roached, and in order to get a good view 

 of her we had to crawl on our hands and 

 knees for quite a distance behind the walls 

 and fences. She was very shy, and the 

 male bird did not appear. 



Feeling that we had before us a rare 

 specimen, we went back to Pachaug and 

 borrowed a gun with which we secured the 

 bird. We also took the bush containing 

 the nest and the two eggs. 



After examining the bird carefully I felt 

 quite certain that it was a Mockingbird. 

 We found a brief description of Mimus 



I polyglottns in " Minofs Land and Game 

 Birds of New England," and as our speoi 

 men just filled the bill we entertained no 



i further doubts. 



This bird seemed much more beautiful 

 when flying than any caged specimen that 



' I have ever seen, her white wing-patches 



and tail-feathers showing to excellent ad- 

 vantage. She had a curious way of tossing 

 herself into the air when about to fly, and 

 she would bound over the fields much like 

 the Golden- winged Woodpecker. The only 

 note we heard was between a squeal and 

 a grunt, and cannot well be described. 



Fearing that some expert ornithologist 

 may think this a case of " mistaken iden- 

 tity," I will add that the bird was shown 

 to a lady who has spent many seasons in 

 Florida and she unhesitatingly pronounced 

 it a Mockingbird. 



J uly 3, I received from a friend in De- 

 Land, Florida, an egg of this species which 

 was almost exactly hke those that I col- 

 lected. I experienced a great degree of 

 satisfaction in writing to him that I had 

 just taken a set of Mockingbird's eggs 

 within four miles of my door. I would 

 like to know if the Mockingbird has ever 

 been known to breed in Connecticut be- 

 fore. — Ohas. Eilw. Prior, Jewett City, 

 Connecticut. 0.& O. IX. Aug. 1884 . p .?y-fj ' 



Brief Notes. 



Nest op the M ockingbibd in Connecticut. Since 

 writing about the Mockingbird's nest, I have learned ttiat 

 tliere are several other nests in the same locality, and that 

 the birds were seen by many. A farmer's boy showed me 

 two eggs that he collected, and he reported haying seen 



young birds. He showed me one of the nests, which was 



exactly like the one taken by Br. Jennings and myself. 



Perhaps they will all come back to this region next season. 



— C. TS. Prior. 



O.&O. IX. Sept. 1884. p. I'i' 



