Some bright morning this month, you may hear a Robin's song from a
large tree near by. A Red Bird answers him and then the Oriole chimes
in. I can see you looking around to find the birds that sing so
sweetly. All this time a gay bird sits among the green leaves and
laughs at you as you try to find three birds when only one is there.
It is the Mocking Bird or Mocker, and it is he who has been fooling
you with his song. Nature has given him lots of music and gifted him
with the power of imitating the songs of other birds and sounds of
other animals.
He is certainly the sweetest of our song birds. The English
Nightingale alone is his rival. I think, however, if our Mocker could
hear the Nightingale's song, he could learn it.
The Mocking Bird is another of our Thrushes. By this time you have
surely made up your minds that the Thrushes are sweet singers.
The Mocker seems to take delight in fooling people. One gentleman
while sitting on his porch heard what he thought to be a young bird in
distress. He went in the direction of the sound and soon heard the
same cry behind him. He turned and went back toward the porch, when he
heard it in another direction. Soon he found out that Mr. Mocking Bird
had been fooling him, and was flying about from shrub to shrub making
that sound.
His nest is carelessly made of almost anything he can find. The small,
bluish-green eggs are much like the Catbird's eggs.
Little Mocking Birds look very much like the young of other Thrushes,
and do not become Mockers like their parents, until they are full
grown.
Which one of the other Thrushes that you have seen in BIRDS does the
Mocking Bird resemble?
He is the only Thrush that sings while on the wing. All of the others
sing only while perching.
[Illustration: From col. F. M. Woodruff. AMERICAN MOCKING BIRD.]