554 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
and towhee mews on the brain, and the jaunty, iterant Mocker was just 
practicing scales! 
Another possible phase of mimicry was suggested to us by Mr. 
Delgar at Joseph, whose wife used to take young Mockers from the 
nest and raise them for pets. One, as he expressed it, got so that it 
would “talk,” imitating the names of a dog and a child heard in con¬ 
stant use. 
The Mockingbirds are notably numerous at Mesilla Park in the 
summer and are frequently seen in winter, Professor Merrill writes, 
“especially in the thickets in the valley. They live on insects, fruit, 
berries, and seeds. In the cactus garden at the college they are par¬ 
ticularly fond of the ripe tunas and get the purple-pink stain nearly 
all over their heads while pecking the fruit out of its skin. They nest 
irregularly from the latter part of May to the latter part of July” (MS). 
Families of young birds were seen by Mr. Huey in the San Felipe 
region of Lower California as early as the latter part of March. Here, 
the parasitic mistletoe in the iromvoods supplied them with abundant 
food, and Mr. Huey found that “the heaviest laden trees were con¬ 
stantly guarded by them against the inroads of the more numerous 
Phainopeplas (1927, p. 36). 
Additional Literature—Dickey, D. R., Condor, XXIV, 153-157, 1922.— 
Emerson, W. O., Bull. Nuttall Orn. Club (= Condor, vol. 1), 27, 1899.— Harring¬ 
ton, A. B., Bird-Lore, XXV, 310-312, 1923.— Pearson, T. G., Educational Leaf¬ 
let 41, Nat. Assoc. Audubon Soc.— Miller, O. T., In Nesting Time, 35-64, 1893. 
CATBIRD: Dumetella carolinensis (Linnaeus) 
Description. — Length: 8-9.3 inches, wing 3.4-3.7, tail 3.7-4.2, bill .6-.7, tarsus 
1-1.1. Adults: Dark slate-gray , crown a?ul tail black; under tail coverts dark reddish 
brown. Young in juvenal plumage: Similar, but duller, and under tail coverts lighter. 
Range. Breeds mainly in Transition and Austral Zones from central parts of 
British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, southern Manitoba, central Ontario, 
southern Quebec, and Nova Scotia south to northern Florida, eastern Texas, north¬ 
eastern New Mexico, northern Utah, and northeastern Oregon; winters from south¬ 
ern States to Bahamas and Cuba, and through Mexico to Panama. Recorded from 
Farallon Islands. 
State Records. New Mexico lies at the extreme southwestern part of the breed¬ 
ing range of the Catbird, and the species is confined in the breeding season to the 
noithern part of the State. Here it was found with eggs in the nest June 4, 1904, at 
Rinconada (Surber); and feeding young in the nest July 14-15, 1904, along Pueblo 
Creek near Taos (Bailey); [a pair was found feeding young, June 24, 1918, in a garden 
in the San Juan Pueblo; a nest with four fresh eggs was found, June 13, 1921, in 
cottonwoods on the Santa Fe River in the city of Santa Fe; and on June 15, 1922, a 
third nest with five eggs was found in a tangle of willows and vines a mile from the 
second (Jensen). Several were seen and a pair feeding young out of the nest, July 
8, 1919, on the Pecos, a mile above old Pecos (Ligon).] Two birds were seen about 
May 7, 1907, at Shiprock (Gilman); and one August 18, 1906, at Espanola (Bailey). 
