MOCKING-BIRD (.11inins pulyglolloN). The most famous, if not the sweetest and most beauti ful, of American songsters. it receives its popu lar name from its extraordinary powers of vocal imitation. It is often called 'mocking-thrush,' and was formerly considered a peculiarly modified thrush. but IOW, with its near relatives the eat bird and brown thrasher, it is classified very neon• the wrens. The genus Alinms is characterized by the elongate form, long tail, short wings, and straight hill, much shorter than the head, notched near the tip. and whiteness of the plumage on the inferior surface of the body. The mocking-bird is about ten or eleven inches long. the tail being nearly one-half the total length. The upper are ashy-gray; the Wing.; and tail are nearly black, extensively In:irked with white: nude• parts grayish-white. The bird is very common in the• South Atlantic and Gulf States, and in summer ranges as far north as Massachusetts and westward to the Pacifie coast. The nest is built in hushes and low trees. It is made of twigs, leaves• weed-stalks, and grasses, lined with root lets, cotton• etc. The eggs are four to six in number, pale greenish-blu•. heavily spotted and blotched, especially near the larger end, with bright brown. Two and sometimes three broods are reared in the season, which begins early in the spring and lasts until the end of the summer.
During the spring and early summer the birds sing all day and even all night. and in inatry localities the air rings with their ramie. Their native song is extraordinarily beautiful• but it has in tile ]cower of reproducing the songs of other birds with such accuracy as to de ce•ive even the imitated birds. There is, however. very great individual ditl•erence in this power, for while some birds seem seldom to attempt any mimicry, others are constantly imitating the sounds which they hear.
When taken from the nest. young moeking birds readily become aeettstomed to cage life. and may live for many years. They are easily taught and often improve greatly with eareful training. The food of the mocking-bird is largely com posed of insects and berries or seeds. An in habitant of gardens and roadsides, fond of human habitations, and seldom seen in the woods. the mocking-bird is often found in and even in the streets of large towns.
Besides the common mocking-bird. more than a dozen other species of Al Mins °emir in the West, Indies, Mexico, Central and South .\me•ica. The `mountain IoroscnptcR montanus) of the Western Cnited States is a much smaller and quite different bird. and not cspcc'i:nIl• nota ble as a songster. See Colored Plate of SONG 1:inDs with THRUSH.