Birds of Pinal Oo. -with Remarks on 

 Some Birds of Pima and Qila Cos. Ariz. 



W.B.D. Soott, a-notatedbyJ. A Allen 



219. Mimus polyglottos. Mockingbird.— A common resident through- 

 out the region up to sin altitude of 5000 feet, but more abundant during the 



spring migration and in the summer season. In the Catalina Range they 

 are abundant at all times, save in midwinter, up to the altitude indicated, 

 and breed in numbers, raising three broods of three to five voung each, 

 during the spring and earlv summer months. The first brood is hatched 

 by late April or early May, and the final brood late in July or the first 

 week in August. j 



In this connection some experience thati had with young of this species 

 may be of interest. About May 20, 1S85, I captured a young Mockingbird 

 which could fly short distances pretty well. It was probably four weeks 

 old. It soon became accustomed to the cage, which was a large one, and 

 ate readily from the hand or from the feed cups. By the time it had 

 become fully tamed, about ten days or two weeks after it was captured, 

 two other young birds were obtained from a nest. They were pretty well 

 feathered, but the tails and wings were not at all grown, and the little 

 fellows knew nothing about feeding themselves. By this time the bird 

 first captured was fully feathered and grown, being very like an old bird 

 in everything save some details of plumage. The younger birds were put 

 in the same cage with the one first captured. I fed the birds largely on 

 grasshoppers, which were very abundant. From the time that the younger 

 birds entered the cage, they opened their mouths very wide, and made a 

 twittering sound whenever the older birds seized on one of the insects to 

 kill and eat it. After the first twenty-four hours, the elder bird seemed to 

 realize that certain duties devolved upon it, and began to feed and care for 

 the younger birds with the solicitude of a parent. This was continued for 

 a couple of weeks, when the small birds had learned to feed themselves. 

 May not this be considered as either an instance of considerable mental 

 capacity, or a strongly inherited parental instinct.? 



[Mr. Scott's series of seven adult birds are very much lighter above than 

 specimens from the Atlantic States, with generally more white on the 

 tail feathers, and always much more white on the wings, the white area 

 on the inner primaries being one-fourth to one-third greater than in Flor- 

 ida and South Carolina birds. The white wing-bars are broader, the 

 secondaries are much more broadly tipped with white, and the white is much 

 purer; the primaries are in some specimens, narrowly tipped with 

 pure white — a feature absent in the eastern bird — and the outer edge of all 

 theremiges and greater coverts is more broadly bordered with a much lighter 

 shade of gray. The throat is white, and the lower parts generally are of a 

 much lighter shade. The white of the tail is a clearer, more snowy white 

 —not silvery or grayish white, as is usually the case in eastern birds; the 

 fourth feather often has a blotch of white at the end. The gray of the 

 upperparts is very much lighter in the Arizonabirds, this difference being 

 a striking feature. In size and proportions there seems to be no tangible 

 difference, the tail being not disproportionately longer in the western 

 bird. This form is therefore not identical with the bird from Lower Cal- 

 ifornia Professor Baird at one time proposed to call Mimus catidatus, 

 although this name has been used to designate the Mockingbird as found 

 in Arizona {Coues) and Colorado {Rido^tvay). 



Mr. Sennett's specimens from Texas agree very closely in general fea- 

 tures with the Scott birds from Arizona. — J. A. A.] 



fiV- 



Auk, V. April 1888. p^^iei 



were fat and then- stomacns were wen nneu wilh wuiino a^,^ 3,„„„, 

 larv«, etc. Their feet were perfect in every way, the claws being sharp 

 and showing not the slightest indication of having grasped the perch of 

 a bird cage; and besides, the birds were exceedingly wild and shy. Then 

 again cage birds as rare as the Mockingbird is in this latitude, and espe- 

 cially locality, do not go about in flocks, so, on the whole, I am satisfied 

 that the birds came north with a flock of Brown Thrashers with which they 

 were associating at the time I found them. I am not at all familiar with 

 Mimus fglyglottos, but one feature presented by the specimens captured 

 appeared a little odd. The iris of the female was brown while that of 

 both males was greenish yellow, much like the iris of Oroscoptes 7nonta- 

 nus, but not quite so yellow. — Frank Bond, C/teyenne, Wyoming. 



Ank XI, July. 1894 p. 368-69 



