98 
TURDUS POLYGLOTTUS. 
sale. The usual price of a singing’ bird is from sever! 
to fifteen, and even twenty dollars. I have known 
fifty dollars paid for a remarkable fine singer; and one 
instance where one hundred dollars were refused for a 
still more extraordinary one. 
Attempts have been made to induce these charming 
birds to pair, and rear their young in a state of confine- 
ment, and the result has been such as to prove it, by 
proper management, perfectly practicable. In the spring 
of 1808, a Mr Klein, living in North Seventh Street, 
Philadelphia, partitioned off about twelve feet square 
in the' third story of his house. This was lighted by a 
pretty large wire-grated window. In the centre of this 
small room he planted a cedar hush, five or six feet 
high, in a box of earth, and scattered about a sufficient 
quantity of materials suitable for building. Into this 
place a male and female mocking bird were put, and 
soon began to build. The female laid five eggs, all of 
which she hatched, and fed the young with great affec- 
tion until they were nearly able to fly. Business call- 
ing the proprietor from home for two weeks, he left the 
birds to the care of his domestics ; and, on his return, 
found, to his great regret, that they had been neglected 
in food. The young ones were all dead, and the parents 
themselves nearly famished. The same pair have again 
commenced building this season, in the same place, and 
have at this time, July 4, 1809, three young, likely to 
do well. The place might be fitted up with various 
kinds of shrubbery, so as to resemble their native 
thickets ; and ought to he as remote from noise and 
interruption of company as possible, 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 
* Many people are of opinion that there are two sorts, the large 
and the small mocking bird ; but, 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. 
