January, 1900. Natural History Notes. 
61 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
On the Occurrence of the Mocking: Bird in Milwaukee County. 
The northern Hmit of the range of the mocking bird Mimiis 
polyglottiis, is stated to be the forty-second parallel of latitude, 
which is approximately that of Chicago. The following is offered 
as evidence that this limit should be extended at least one degree 
or to the latitude of Milwaukee. 
In Mclllwraith's ''Birds of Ontario," is recorded a well-au- 
thenticated case of a pair of these birds nesting one year near 
the city of Hamilton, Ontario, which is in latitude 43 deg. 15 min. 
As Hamilton is at the extreme north of an arm of the Carolinian 
Faunal area — as outlined by the United States Biological Survey 
in 1897 — that extends into Canada, and as Milwaukee is near the 
north end of a similar arm that enters Wisconsin, we might expect 
to hear occasional reports of their presence near the latter city. 
That the mocking bird was at one time not uncommon in this 
locality would appear probable from the following extract from a 
paper published by this society in 1885, and written by the late 
Dr. P. R. Hoy, of Racine — a city twenty miles south of Mil- 
waukee. He writes: ''Mocking birds nested freely in the near 
vicinity of Racine previous to 1856. I obtained three nests and 
knew of several that I would not molest and of three others broken 
up by boys. This matchless songster was continually heard 
among the thorn thickets and witch-hazel bushes. The ax and 
plow have destroyed the haunts of this interesting bird ; none have 
been seen for fifteen or twenty years." 
During the past five years, however, the following instances 
of their occurrence in Milwaukee County have come to our 
notice : 
On the evening of June 29th, 1894, we found a bird of this 
species in full song in a tree on the banks of Oak Creek, about half 
a mile from its outlet. As we had but lately come from a two 
years' sojourn in the Gulf states, where we had frequent oppor- 
tunity to become acquainted with the mocking bird, it is not likely 
that a mistake was made in identification. 
Mr. John W. Dunlop has also reported the fact of a pair nest- 
ing near the same locality a few years ago. 
