MOCKING-BIRD. 
1? 
"within a few feet ; playing around the planter's door, and hopping along 
the shingles. During the month of February I sometimes heard a soli- 
tary one singing ; but on the second of March, in the neighborhood of 
Savannah, numbers of them were heard on every hand, vying in song 
with each other, and, with the Brown Thrush, making the whole woods 
vocal Avith their melody. Spring was at that time considerably advanced; 
and the thermometer ranged between 70 and 78 degrees. On arriving 
at New York, on the twenty-second of the same month, I found many 
parts of the country still covered with snow, and the streets piled with 
ice to the height of two feet ; while neither the Brown Thrush nor 
Mocking-bird was observed, even in the lower parts of Pennsylvania, 
until the twentieth of April. 
The precise time at which the Mocking-bird begins to build his nest 
varies according to the latitude in which he resides. In the lower parts 
of Georgia he commences building early in April ; but in Pennsylvania 
rarely before the tenth of May ; and in New York, and the states of 
New England, still later. There are particular situations to which he 
gives the preference. A solitary thorn bush, an almost impenetrable 
thicket ; an orange-tree, cedar, or holly-bush, are favorite spots, and 
frequently selected. It is no great objection with him that these 
happen, sometimes, to be near the farm or mansion house: always ready 
to defend, but never over anxious to conceal, his nest, he very often 
builds within a small distance of the bouse ; and not unfrequently in a 
pear or apple tree; rarely at a greater height than six or seven feet 
from the ground. The nest varies a little with different individuals, 
according to the conveniency of collecting suitable materials. A very 
complete one is now lying before me, and is composed of the following 
substances. First a quantity of dry tAvigs and sticks, then Avithered 
tops of Aveeds of the preceding year, intermixed with fine' straAvs, hay, 
pieces of avooI and toAv; and lastly, a thick layer of fine fibrous roots, 
of a light broAvn color, lines the whole. The eggs, one of which is 
represented at fig. 2, are four, sometimes five, of a cinereous blue, 
marked Avith large blotches of brown. The female sits fourteen days,- 
and generally produces tAvo broods in the season, unless robbed of her 
eggs, in which case she will even build and lay the third time. She is 
however, extremely jealous of her nest, and very apt to forsake it if 
much disturbed. It is even asserted by some of our bird dealers, that 
the old ones will actually destroy the eggs, and poison the young, if 
either the one or the other have been handled. But I cannot give credit 
to this unnatural report. I knoAv from my oavii experience, at least, 
that it is not ahvays their practice ; neither have I ever Avitnessed a 
case of the kind above mentioned. During the period of incubation 
neither cat, dog, animal or man, can approach the nest without being 
attacked. The cats, in particular, are persecuted whenever they make 
Vol. II.— 2 
