THE MOCKINGBIRD. 
WISHING to verify a state- 
ment which we had seen 
in a contemporary, we 
wrote to Mr. R. F. Bettis, 
of Tampa, Florida, requesting, if it 
were true, that he would confirm it, 
although, from our acquaintance with 
the bird, we had no doubt of its sub- 
stantial correctness. In response Mr. 
Bettis writes us as follows : 
" Yours of June 24 received. Will 
say in regard to the Mockingbird, I 
live one and one fourth miles north of 
the courthouse in Tampa. I have a 
lot containing two acres of land, and it 
is grown up in live and water oak 
bushes which are very dense in foliage. 
It is a fine place for birds to nest 
and raise young. I do not allow any 
one to shoot or destroy the birds on 
my place, and it doesn't take the birds 
long to find out a place where they are 
protected. I think there are about 
twenty-five or thirty Mocking birds on 
my place, and they become very tame. 
About two years ago one of the birds 
took to coming into the house, and 
sitting on the chairs and warbling in a 
low tone, and my wife and children 
began to talk to it and put bread 
crumbs on the window sill for it, and 
it soon began to come for something 
to eat. It would sit on the trellis in 
front of the window and sing for hours 
at a time, and on moonlight nights 
would sit on the chimney and sing for 
half the night. * * * 
It would recognize the family, and 
when my wife and daughter would go 
from home, it would fly along and 
alight on the fence and give a chir- 
ping noise as though it did not want 
them to go, and on their return would 
meet them the same way, but the 
chirping would be in a different 
tone, as though glad to see them. 
When they were in the house it would 
sing some of the sweetest notes that 
ever came from a bird's throat. Every 
morning at about 5 o'clock it would peck 
on the window pane until we got up 
and opened up the house. About six 
months ago while all the family were 
away some Cuban and negro boys 
came by my place and shot it, and it 
seems as if something were missing 
from the place ever since. But I have 
three more that will come in on the 
back porch and eat crumbs. Two are 
on the back porch now about fifteen 
feet from me while I write, but they 
are not as gentle as the other one. 
There has been so much shooting 
about my place since the soldiers came 
that it frightens the birds some. The 
soldiers have a sham battle every day, 
around my house and sometimes in 
my yard. 
Hoping you can cull out of this 
what you want for your magazine, 
I am 
Yours truly, 
R. F. Bettis. 
THE BOBOLINK'S SONG. 
Suddenly from the dead weed stalks 
in the draw, where the Blackbirds had 
sung yesterday, there broke forth the 
most rollicking, tinkling, broken-up, 
crushed-glass kind of bird melody that 
he had everheard — something in perfect 
accord with his mood again ; and look- 
ing up he saw a flock of black and 
white birds all mingled in, some plain, 
streaked, sparrow-like kinds — the 
former given to the utmost abandon of 
music. He had seen these birds before 
occasionally, but he never knew their 
names, and now he found there was 
more he had not known, for he had 
heard the Bobolink sing for the first 
time. — From Basket? s "At You All's 
House." 
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