He's aware that I can communicate with them as most people are. And I imagine he and Lucy thought I was utilizing them to spy.

[ Which....he was. ]

Any mockingbird that found itself unfortunate to be near either home in De Chima has wound up dead. And most insulting of all was the fact that I gifted one to Lucy as a means of protection, and she killed that gift in return -- even after it helped me to save her from a kidnapping at one point in time.

Casualties happen. But my birds were deliberately hunted down and killed when they simply could have been scared off from the areas, and I find such a thing intolerable.