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BIRDS OF DURHAM AND VICINITY. 
Family TROGLODYTID.^. 
Mimus polyglottos. Mockingbird. 703. 
I am able to add the Mockingbird to this list on the strength of an 
immature specimen killed at Hampton, August 24, 1900. and now in 
the possession of Mr. Shaw. This bird was evidently a young of the 
year, and showed no indications of having been caged. The occur- 
rence of a mockingbird in New Hampshire is extraordinary, although 
I have been informed that a pair bred regularly near Worcester, Mass., 
some years since, and for aught I know, still do so. 
Galeoscoptes carolinensis. Catbird. 718. 
Almost every alder run and leafy thicket furnishes a summer home 
for Catbirds. May 7 is the earliest date I have set down for their 
coming — the average time being four or five days later. Insects form 
their chief diet until the ripening of berries and other small fruits, 
which then take a prominent place on their menu. They go to the 
earth for insects, but sing from a tree top, and the nest, which is a 
coarse, bulky structure, is built in a bush or sapling. After the early 
frosts come. Catbirds seek such moist runs as are in the shelter of 
pines or other dense trees, where they stay well into September, and 
I have known individuals to remain till the tenth of October. 
Toxostoma rufus. Browx Thrasher. 705. 
The period of the Brown Thrashers residence with us is practically 
the same as that of the Catbird, my earliest record being May 8, and 
my latest, October 10. Its food consists of insects, fruits, and seeds 
according to the season. A May specimen which I once examined 
had eaten a beetle, a smooth caterpillar, and a small snake. It makes 
its home in upland thickets, preferring dry to moist soil. Its nest is 
usually built in some dense bush, often a solitary one, such as a scrub 
apple tree, a barberry, or a thorn bush, though it is not infrequently 
placed on the ground. The extensive tracts of pasture land covered 
with juniper and barberry bushes, in this vicinit}', offer famous retreats 
for Thrashers. 
Thryothorus ludovicianus. Carolina Wren. 718. 
In the second edition of Minot's •• Land and Game Birds of New 
England," Mr. Brewster cites a record of the occurrence of this wren at 
Rye Beach, as follows : " Mr Spellman has also reported (Bull. N. O. 
