20 
CAGE-BIRDS. 
ish-white, the centre of each feather being streaked with brown. After the 
first moult, however, the bird’s plumage assumes a blending of brown and 
brilliant yellow, which it wears ever after. 
Audubon gives a most interesting account of the loves of these elegant 
birds, which, though we have not space to quote, we shall embody in our 
narrative. They often select the vicinity of the planter’s house, where, 
surrounded by the richest scenery, and embowered amidst thousands of 
beautiful flowers, they build their nest. The female selects the spot, the 
male the while attending and aiding her in her choice. The golden orange, 
the beautiful magnolias and bignonias, the fig and the pear trees are in¬ 
spected, and these quite close to the house ; for the birds know that, while 
man is not a dangerous enemy, his dwelling is usually protected from strong 
winds, and therefore they fix their abode in its vicinity, perhaps in the near¬ 
est tree to his window; and so little suspicious are they of interference, 
that they often build them so low that you can see into them as you stand. 
In a state of freedom, the principal food of the mocking-bird consists of 
insects, grasshoppers, and worms. Dewberries from the fields, and many 
kinds of our cultivated fruits, together with insects, supply the young as 
well as the parents with food. In winter, they chiefly subsist on berries, 
particularly those of the Virginia juniper (red cedar), wax myrtle, holly, 
smilax, sumach, sour gum, and a variety of others. 
Successful attempts have been made to breed these birds in confinement, 
by allowing them retirement and a sufficiency of room. Those which have 
been taken in trap cages are accounted the best singers, as they come 
from the school of nature, and are taught their own wild-wood notes. The 
young are easily reared by hand from the nest, from which they ought to 
be removed at eight or ten days’ old. Their food is thickened meal and 
water, or meal and milk, mixed occasionally with tender fresh meat, minced 
fine. Animal food, almost alone, finely divided and soaked in milk, is at 
first the only nutriment suited for raising these tender nurslings. Young 
and old require berries of various kinds, from time to time, such as cherries, 
strawberries, whortleberries, etc., and, in short, any kind of wild fruits of 
which they are fond, if not given too freely, are useful. A few grasshop¬ 
pers, beetles, or any insects conveniently to be had. as well as gravel, are 
also necessary; and spiders will often revive them when droopiug or sick. 
Dut, notwithstanding all the care and management bestowed upon the im¬ 
provement of this bird, it is painful to reflect that his extraordinary powers 
of nature, exercised with so much generous freedom in a state of confine¬ 
ment, are not calculated for long endurance; for, after tliis most wonderful 
and interesting prisoner has survived six or seven years, blindness often 
terminates his gay career. Thus shut out from the cheering light of 
heaven, the solace of his lonely, though active existence, he now, after a 
time, droops in silent sadness and dies. At times, this bird is so infested 
with a minute species of louso as to be destroyed by it. 
