Fig. 9. — Mockingbird in winter plumage, resting in a multiflora rose hedge. 
od Habits 
Forbes ( 1880) examined only two specimens of mock- 
sbirds in his food habits studies and little has been done 
| the subject since. His specimens were taken near 
oomington, at least one of them in August. Sixty per- 
nt of the stomach contents consisted of Orthoptera. 
ther observers have recorded orthopterans, notably 
asshoppers, in the mocker’s diet (Vestal 1913, and 
andercook 1923). Much of the foraging is done on the 
ound, and Vandercook (1923) observed a mocker tak- 
x insects under garden mulch in F ebruary. Besides rose 
9s and the foods taken at feeders in winter (see above), 
ckingbirds take other kinds of fruit. In southern IIli- 
nois Steagall (1922) and Vandercook (1923) noted that 
persimmons (Diospyros virginiana) and hackberries (Cel- 
tis sp.) were important to the mocker. Also in southern 
Illinois, Ridgway (1929) found mockers feeding on the 
fruit of holly (Ilex decidua), and hawthorn (Crataegus 
viridis). In central Illinois Musselman (1939) saw mock- 
ingbirds feed on bittersweet (Celastrus scandens, berries 
during the cold weather, until waxwings decimated the 
supply. A mocker weathered the winter near Wilmette 
eating frozen apples still on a tree (Schaub 1942), and 
at Glen Ellyn a bird fed on the fruit of yew (Taxus sp., 
Stofer 1944). There are no real quantitative data on the 
food habits at any season, and none on the food of the 
young. 
