The reference in question is in chapter 30. Scout and Jem have been attacked on their way home from the Halloween pageant at the high school and attacked in the dark. There was a scuffle and someone yanked a man off of Scout (who was saved by her costume; the chicken wire that created it saved her from being knifed) and then there was a man coughing and wheezing. When Scout got her bearings, she saw the man carrying Jem home, and she followed.
They find out shortly, when Sheriff Heck Tate arrives, that Bob Ewell is lying dead under the tree with a kitchen knife stuck under his ribs. The mystery man is Boo Radley himself.
Tate and Atticus go to the porch to discuss what happens next. Atticus seems to believe that Jem killed Ewell, even if it was in self-defense, but Tate will have none of it. It's clear to him that Boo killed Ewell to protect the children, and he convinces Atticus of this--and also convinces Atticus that they can't tell the truth because Boo would suddenly be a hero, which would be cruel to a man as retiring and shy as he. So Tate says that Ewell fell on his knife, and that's all there is to it.
Atticus finally accepts this, and calls Scout to him. He says, "Mr. Ewell fell on his knife. Can you possibly understand?"
Scout says, "Yes sir. I understand. Mr. Tate was right." Atticus asks what she means, and she says, "Well, it would be sort of like shootin' a mockingbird, wouldn't it?"
Years earlier, Atticus had given his children air rifles for Christmas and had said they could shoot at any bird except mockingbirds, because it was a sin to shoot a mockingbird. All a mockingbird does is sing and bring joy to people. Scout here equates bringing Boo into the limelight with shooting a mockingbird. Boo has never hurt anyone; he's only done good, saving the children from a homicidal drunk. To bring what he did into the open would be cruel and pointless--like shooting a mockingbird.
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