THE BIRDS OF WISCONSIN. 
121 
FAfllLY TROQLODYTID^E: WREiNS, THRASHERS, ETC. 
Mimus polyglottos (Linn.). MOCKINGBIRD. 
A rare summer visitant. Many of the records of the mock- 
ingbird in Wisconsin are very doubtful, as they are mostly of 
birds "seen" only, and with a bird of this kind such records are 
always open to question, as observers not familiar with the 
species are very likely to make serious mistakes in their 
anxiety to add a new species to their local list. There is also 
the regular possibility of its being an escaped cage bird. We 
have positive records of its nesting on the old Kumlien home- 
stead, in Jefferson County, however, in June, 1879 and 1880, 
and of one specimen captured in Milwaukee County in 
August, 1882 (L. K.). Hoy reported specimens seen July 10, 
1851, between Racine and Kenosha, and July 26, 1846, near 
the southern state line. Later (1885), Hoy wrote that mock- 
ingbirds nested freely near Racine previous to 1856, that he 
obtained three nests and knew of several others that he did not 
molest, but that none had been seen for fifteen or twenty years. 
In the Bulletin of the Wisconsin Natural History Society for 
January, 1900, Mr. W. J. Bennetts records one seen by him- 
self June 29, 1894, near Milwaukee, in the same locality where 
Mr. John W. Dunlop had reported a pair nesting a few years 
ago, and also states that Mr. Robert O. Wanvig has a nest and 
eggs, taken in 1897, just west of Milwaukee, from a sheltered 
grove where he has seen the birds for the past few summers. 
Galeoscoptes carolinensis (Linn.). CATBIRD. 
A common summer resident over the greater part of the 
state. Arrives from the south about the first of May, and 
very soon commences nest building. A common species 
about dwellings and towns, unlike the thrasher, adapting itself 
to civilization and the vast changes which follow in its wake. 
Toxostoma rufum (Linn.). BROWN THRASHER. 
Formerly an abundant summer resident. The brown 
thrasher seems to have greatly diminished in numbers during 
the past fifteen years, until now it is scarcely common in many 
localities, and really rare in some, where it once bred in good 
numbers. That such a magnificent bird, with so fine a voice 
should grow less in numbers at such a rate is a great pity, and 
the species should be carefully guarded and protected in every 
