Archibald Rutledge (1883-1973), a well-known American poet, tells the following story.
When I was a boy in Carolina, I was cured forever of caging wild things. Not content with hearing mocking birds sing from the cedars, I determined to cage a young one, and thus have a young musician all my own. On the second day in the cage, he saw his mother fly to him with food in her bill. This attention pleased me for surely the mother knew how to feed her child better than I did. The following morning my pathetic little captive was dead.
When I recounted this experience to Arthur Wayne, the renowned ornithologist, he said, "A mother mocking bird, finding her young in a cage, will sometimes take it poison berries. She thinks it better for one she loves to die rather than to live in captivity."
美國著名詩人阿奇博爾德．拉特利奇生於一八八三年，卒於一九七三年。以下是他說的一個故事。
我小時，在卡羅萊納州，學會了不再把野生動物囚在籠中。我曾經想到，與其聽反舌鳥在香柏樹上歌唱，不如把一隻年幼的囚在籠中，那就等於有一個我自己的年輕樂師。那雛兒在籠中的第二天，見到其母親銜着食物飛來。母鳥對雛兒的關懷，令我十分高興，因為其母當然比我更懂得照顧牠。可是，隨後一天早上，那可憐的小俘虜已經死了。
我跟著名的鳥類學家亞瑟．韋恩談到這件事。他說：「母反舌鳥見其雛兒囚在籠中，有時會給牠毒漿果吃，認為所愛者與其活在囚禁之中，不如死去。」