MOCKING BIRD. 
175 
and strangers rarely allowed to disturb, or even approach 
them. 
The Mocking Bird is nine and a half inches long, and 
thirteen in breadth. Some individuals are, however, larger, 
and some smaller, those of the first hatch being uniformly the 
biggest and stoutest.* The upper parts of the head, neck, 
and back, are a dark, brownish ash, and when new moulted, 
a fine light gray; the wings and tail are nearly black, the first 
and second rows of coverts tipt with white ; the primary 
coverts, in some males, are wholly white, in others, tinged 
with brown. The three first primaries are white from their 
roots as far as their coverts ; the white on the next six extends 
from an inch to one and three-fourths farther down, descend- 
ing equally on both sides of the feather ; the tail is cuneiform, 
the two exterior feathers wholly white, the rest, except the 
middle ones, tipt with white ; the chin is white ; sides of the 
neck, breast, belly, and vent, a brownish white, much purer 
in wild birds than in those that have been domesticated ; iris 
of the eye, yellowish cream coloured, inclining to golden ; 
bill, black, the base of the lower mandible, whitish ; legs and 
feet, black, and strong. The female very much resembles the 
male ; what difference there is, has been already pointed out 
in a preceding part of this account. The breast of the young 
bird is spotted like that of the thrush. f 
Mr William Bartram observes of the Mocking Bird, that 
* Many people are of opinion that there are two sorts, the large and the 
small Mocking Bird ; hut, after examining great numbers of these birds in 
various regions of the United States, I am satisfied that this variation of size 
is merely accidental, or owing to the circumstance above mentioned. 
I A bird is described in the Northern Zoology as the Varied Thrush of 
Pennant, the Turdus ncevius of Latham, which will rank as an addition 
to the North American species of this genus, and has been named by Mr 
Swainson O. meruloides, Thrushlike Mocking Bird. Mr Swainson has 
changed the name of Latham, to give it one expressive of its form ; as he 
considers the structure intermediate between Orpheus and Turdus, though 
leaning most to the former. According to Dr Richardson, it was discovered 
by Captain Cook at Nootka Sound, and described by Latham from these 
specimens Ed. 
