194 Our Bird Friends. 



minutes I heard a Sandpiper's low, sweet irheH 

 wheet, and, whipping out my field glasses, began to 

 search for the bird along the shores of the bx-h at 

 my feet. The note was rej^eated, and I pursued 

 my search with redoubled vigour until our pho- 

 tographer cracked out laughing at me. The note 

 came not from a Sandpiper at all, but from a 

 mimickini( StarUni>' seated on a rock not far away. 



I have also been deceived by hearing the bird 

 repeat the notes of both the Golden Plover and the 

 Peewit from cbimney-tops in the suburbs <»f London. 



It has been said that the Starbng is as clever 

 an imitator as the American Mocking Pird, but 

 although I have never had the })lcasure of listening 

 to the Latter, T am incbned to doubt the statement — at 

 any rate, so far as bird songs are concerned — for tbe 

 feathered mimic ot" the West has been known to 

 learn and repeat in two or three days tlio melodies 

 of j^articnlarly accomplisbcd lilad^birds and Sl;y- 

 larks in such wonderful style liiat tlicii- original 

 singers became disgusted with tlieir own etforts 

 and were reduced to pining silence. 



Fi'om obsei'vations made in nearly every \n\r\ of 

 the country, I should say tbat tbe StarliuL:' was 

 much cleverer at ]^i<'king up eall notes tban a.elual 

 songs. I have heard it repeat those of the Curlew, 

 Connuon Partridge, (Jolden Plover, Peewit, Sand- 

 piper, and Kinged Plover, and there have been 

 people deceived into looking al)out t"oi- a Tawny 

 ()wl hooting in the daytime, and even into rising 



