A Mocking Bird at Fay’s 
In these days, when it is not uncommon to hear of the 
Mocking Bird as a winter visitant or even an all the year 
resident of Massachusetts, an old record of the bird may be 
interesting. 
In the winter of 1893 I was studying skinning and mounting 
birds under the direction of the veteran taxidermist, Mr. N. S. 
Vickary. On April 4 I was out with a friend watching the 
birds and incidentally looking for material to practise on. 
In a tall evergreen hedge not far from where the Fay mansion 
stood we saw two grayish birds which we took to be Butcher 
Birds. I shot one and though both of us remarked on the 
character of the bill and the general build of the bird neither 
of us discovered our error until Mr. Vickary told us it was a 
Mocking Bird. I was pleased, naturally, when I found out 
what it was but I should never have shot it had I known 
beforehand. It turned out to be a male in good plumage and 
not daring to trust my own workmanship on so valuable a 
specimen I got Mr. Vickary to mount it for me. I finally 
gave it to the Peabody Museum at Salem where it may still be 
seen among the Essex County birds. 
We never saw the other bird again nor heard of it being 
seen. A copy of the “Ornithologist and Oologist” that 
came out about that time stated that a Mocking Bird had 
been shot in Massachusetts on Feb. 4 of the same year. 
C. E. Chase. 
Purple Martins in Salem Pastures 
Purple Martins having become so rare in Essex County, 
I am pleased to be able to put on record a visit they paid us 
this year. 
While Mr. W. E. Bates and myself were watching a mixed 
company of Swallows hawking for insects over the little pond 
of the N. E. Livestock Co. in Salem pastures, on the afternoon 
of April 25, 1920, we noted one larger and darker than the 
rest. Carefully following it with our glasses, often at close 
range, we were able to fully identify it as a Purple Martin. 
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