COMMON MOCKING-BIRD. 
139 
gone to the Eastern States, some as far as Boston, have returned, they are 
instantly known by the “southrons,” who attack them on all occasions. 1 
have ascertained this by observing, the greater shyness exhibited by the 
strangers for weeks after their arrival. This shyness, however, is shortly 
over, -as well as the animosity displayed by the resident birds, and during 
the winter there exists a great appearance of sociality among the united 
tribes. 
In the beginning of April, sometimes a fortnight earlier, the Mocking- 
birds pair, and construct their nests. In some instances they are so careless 
as to place the nest between the rails of a fence directly by the road. I have 
frequently found it in such places, or in the fields, as well as in briars, but 
always so easily discoverable that any person desirous of procuring one, 
might do so in a very short time. It is coarsely constructed on the outside, 
being there composed of dried sticks of briars, withered leaves of trees, and 
grasses, mixed with wool. Internally it is finished with fibrous roots 
disposed in a circular form, but carelessly arranged. The female lays from 
four to s'ix eggs the first time, four or five the next, and when there is a third 
brood, which is sometimes the case, seldom more than three, of which I have 
rarely found more than two hatched. The eggs are of a short oval form, 
light green, blotched and spotted with umber. The young of the last brood 
not being able to support themselves until late in the season, when many of 
the berries and insects have become scarce, are stunted in growth ; — a 
circumstance which has induced some persons to imagine the existence in 
the United States of two species of Common Mocking-bird, a larger and a 
smaller. This, however, in as far as my observation goes, is not correct. 
The first brood is frequently brought to the bird-market in New Orleans as 
early as the middle of April. A little farther up the country, they are out 
by the fifteenth of May. The second brood is hatched in July, and the third 
in the latter part of September. 
The nearer you approach to the sea-shores, the more plentiful do you find 
these birds. They are naturally fond of loose sands, and of districts scantily 
furnished with small trees, or patches of briars, and low bushes. 
During incubation, the female pays such precise attention to the position 
in which she leaves her eggs, when she goes to a short distance for exercise 
and refreshment, to pick up gravel, or roll herself in the dust, that, on her 
return, should she find that any of them has been displaced, or touched by 
the hand of man, she utters a low mournful note, at the sound of which the 
male immediately joins her, and they are both seen to condole together. 
Some people imagine that, on such occasions, the female abandons the nest ; 
but this idea is incorrect. On the contrary, she redoubles her assiduity and 
care, and scarcely leaves the nest for a moment ; nor is it until she has been 
Vol. II. 83 
