322 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 



the task of rearing their young. In the Southern States, 

 where they are seldom molested, with ready sagacity they 

 seem to court the society of man, and fearlessly hop 

 around the roof of the house, or fly before the planter's 

 door. When a dwelling is first settled in the wilderness, 

 this bird is not seen sometimes in the vicinity for the 

 first year ; but, at length, he pays his welcome visit to 

 the new comer, gratified with the little advantages he 

 discovers around him, and seeking out also the favor and 

 fortuitous protection of human society. He becomes 

 henceforth familiar, and only quarrels with the cat and 

 dog, whose approach he instinctively dreads near his nest, 

 and never ceases his complaints and attacks until they 

 retreat from his sight. 



On the 26th of February I first heard the Mocking- 

 Bird, that season, in one of the prairies of Alabama. 

 He began by imitating the Carolina Woodpecker, tshooai 

 tshooai, Hsliow Hslcoio Hshow ; then, in the same breath, 

 the sweetoot sioeetoot of the Carolina Wren ; by and by, 

 woolit wonlit 'tu Hu oi the Cardinal bird, and the pe^^o 

 peto peto of the Tufted Titmouse, with connecting tones 

 of his own, uttered with an expression so refined and 

 masterly, as if he aimed, by this display of his own powers, 

 to make those inferior vocalists ashamed of their own 

 song. It was tni|j astonishing, what a tender sweetness 

 le contrived to blend amidst notes so harsh and disso- 

 nant as those of the Woodpecker, which ever and anon, 

 made, now, the chorus of his varied and fantastic 

 song. In the lower parts of Georgia, by the beginning of 

 March, they are already heard vying with each other, 

 and with the Brown Thrush, rendering the new-clad 

 forest vocal with the strains of their powerful melody. 



Like the Ferruginous Thrush, to which he is so nearly 

 related, the Mocking^Bird chooses a solitary briar-bush 



