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186 Cardinal, as this dainty little lady condescends to sing only in the spring, and not then, except when alone and her surroundings perfectly quiet. Her song is very low and sweet, but in exact imitation of the far-reaching ﬂute-like notes of her handsome mate. Then, there is that little clown, the Florida Blue Jay. with his merry Kris-krinkle; how many bird students have been so fortunate as to hear the charming song this little fellow sometimes warbles, in between naps, on warm drowsy afternoons in spring?

None of these feathered friends has ever built nests on our trees, the Mocking-birds and Cardinals preferring orange groves and Cherokee

rose bushes, and the others the tangled growth of the hummocks; but nearly all of them brought their young families to us last May, as soon as they could ﬂy. The ﬁrst to appear was that of our pet Mocking-birds, consisting of the two old birds and four young. The father of this family has made his home, during the past three winters, on an oak that is very near my bedroom windows, leaving us for only a short time in the spring, during the nesting season. Many a skirmish have I witnessed between him and the Blue Jays, when the latter have gone to his tree on chilly winter mornings to catch the ﬁrst warm rays of the rising sun; and I have noticed that in these battles, the Mocking-bird was invariably victorious, often driving away as many as four Blue Jays at one time. Like all Mocking-birds, he