228 CONIROSTRES. 



species of Woodpecker ; and when tlie sheep bleat, 

 he will distinctly answer them. Then conies his 

 own song again ; and if a puppy-dog or a guinea- 

 fowl interrupt him, he takes them off admirably, 

 and by his different gestures while doing so, you 

 would think that he enjoys the sport ; indeed, he 

 imitates any sound so exactly, that he goes by no 

 other name than that of the Mocking-bird among 

 the colonists. At breeding-time, a number of these 

 pretty choristers resort to a tree near the planter's 

 house, and from its outside branches weave their 

 pendulous nests ; so conscious do they seem that 

 they never give offence, and so little suspicious are 

 they of receiving any injury from man, that they 

 will choose a tree within forty yards of his house, 

 and occupy the branches so low down that he may 

 peep into their nests." 



The proportions of this bird are so fine that he 

 may be said to be a model of symmetry in Orni- 

 thology. 



The type of this sub -family is — 



The Red-rumped Cassican (Cassicus hcemorrhous). 



