16 
MINUS POLYGLOTTUS. 
nearly all the other birds had left the island. I think they remained all winter, for I saw them 
as late as the latter part of December; I did not, however, meet with them at Miami until March 
15th. One was picked up dead in Indian River, and brought to me, on April 1st, but they did 
not become common there until the 20th of that month. 
They pass Massachusetts during the middle of May when they frequent the swamps. I found 
them common in June, at Lake Umbagog, Maine, in thick woods along the edges of water 
courses; where they generally remain concealed beneath the mass of fallen trees and thick 
underbrush. Indeed, they are so shy, and so seldom leave these inaccessible places, that were 
it not for the song of the males, one would scarcely believe that they were at all common there. 
They breed in these swampy localities. The nest is placed beside a decaying, moss-covered 
log, or at the foot of some tree, generally in the everlasting shadows of the thick evergreens. 
It is seldom covered like that of the Oven Bird. While the female is sitting the male is 
ever near, and the angler who invades this wilderness, so seldom trodden by man, in search 
of the speckled trout, hears its indescribably sweet warbling song, sounding all the more 
melodious because his curious eye fails to detect its author. So all through the long summer 
days, amid the mountain valleys, this bird melody is mingled with the splash of cool waters, 
and the gentle sighing of breezes, which come laden with the fragrance of hemlock and spruce. 
These birds are remarkable for their love of water, and are seldom seen far from it. They 
are exceedingly active, and run very rapidly; on this account they resemble the Sandpipers, 
especially when they are feeding by the side of a pool or stream. They also have the habit 
of jerking their tails in a nervous manner. By the 1st of September they commence their 
southern flight. While passing Massachusetts at this season they may be usually found 
searching the bottom of recently dried up pools and ditches for insects, especially if these 
places are overhung with bushes. They are but little tamer then than at other times, and upon 
the slightest alarm will instantly dart into the nearest thicket. 
GENUS III. MIMUS. THE MOCKING BIRDS. 
Gen. Ch. Pill, equal in length to the head; straight, hut with the tips of the upper mandible curved, and hut slightly 
notched. The sternums differ from those of the Thrushes proper in being broader, and in having a lower keel; the sternum 
being twice as broad as the keel is high. The marginal indentations are. also shallower; being only as deep as one-tliird 
the length of the keel. 
MIMUS POLYGLOTTUS. 
Mocking Bird. 
Mimus polyglottus Boie. Isis, Oct. 182G, 972. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Sp. Ch. Porm, slender. Tail, long. Bill, moderate, rather wide at base. Tarsus, distinctly scutellate. Sternum, 
strongly built. Tongue, rather deeply cleft, with the forked portion ciliated on the ends and outer sides. 
Color. Adult. Above, ashy. Wings, brown; base of all the primaries, their tips and edges, and tips of 
secondaries, wing coverts, and the entire spurious wing, white; the latter, however, has central stripes of brown. 
The white extends over more than half the length of the inner quill feathers, but is more restricted on the outer. 
Tail, very dark brown; the outer feathers, pure white; the next two white on the tip, and for one-half the terminal 
length of the inner web. The next two are tipped with the same. Chin, white. Ring around the eye, a faint 
superciliary line, and the remainder of under parts, dirty white, more dusky on the flanks, breast and tibiae. The 
crown and ear coverts are sometimes streaked with dusky. The under tail coverts are^generally tinged with pale 
buff. Bill and feet black, with the base of the under mandible brown. Irides, pale yellow. 
Young, similar, but with the white more restricted, and a reddish suffusion throughout. The flanks are streaked 
with dusky. 
Young, in the nesting plumage, has the breast streaked with dusky. The white edgings of the scapulars are also 
broader. 
