310 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



variation in modulation. * * * In force and sweetness the Mock- 

 ing bird will often improve upon the original." A. H. Howell 

 (1932) states that "the song of the Mocker is easily the most promi- 

 nent and best loved of southern bird voices." 



John Burroughs (1895) is less qualified in his approbation than 

 the conservative Howell and joins with Ridgway in enthusiastic praise. 

 He termed the mocker "Our nightingale" and goes on to say that it 

 is "famed mostly for its powers of mimicry, which are truly wonderful, 

 enabling the bird to exactly reproduce and even improve upon the 

 notes of almost every other species of songster. * * * Here is the 

 lark and the nightingale in one." 



In connection with the reference to the nightingale, probably the 

 most famous of Old World songsters, an amusing story is even yet 

 related in Florida connected with this species and the mocker. It 

 seems that Edward Bok, who created the well-known Singing Tower 

 near Lake Wales, had several nightingales imported and confined 

 there in cages. When the strangers had settled down and had begun 

 to voice their famous song abroad across the orange groves, great 

 satisfaction was felt, of course. Before long, however, nightingale 

 songs were heard all over the surrounding territory! Here, there, 

 and yonder the foreign strains were echoing, but all the captives 

 remained in their cages. The mockingbirds of the area had taken 

 charge and were broadcasting nightingale melodies over the country- 

 side! It is said that the European performers were put to silence 

 and soon refused to sing at all. Particularly apropos of this is R. W. 

 Shufeldt's symposium on the mockingbird in Newton's "Dictionary 

 of Birds," for he says there : "I believe were he successfully introduced 

 into those countries where the Nightingale flourishes, that princely 

 performer might some day wince as he was obliged to listen to his 

 own most powerful strains poured forth * * * ]yj i\^[g king of 

 feathered mockers." It has happened. 



The mocker begins its performance at an early age. Amelia R. 

 Laskey (MS.) says that they start "when very young but these songs 

 are very soft-toned, 'whisper' songs that cannot be heard unless one 

 is very close to the performer. Four young birds under observation 

 started singing at the following ages : 30 days, 34, 57, and 73 days." 

 This whisper song is also indulged in by the adult and is an exquisite 

 thing — soft, appealing, and infinitely tender in its cadences. 



Aretas A. Saunders (MS.) says that "the song is long continued, 

 consisting of phrases with pauses between them. The mocker differs 

 from the catbird and the brown thrasher in a tendency to repeat a 

 phrase four or five more times in succession, in a richer quality, in 

 greater frequency of singing, tendency to sing at night, especially 

 when moonlight * * * frequently in fall * * * frequently 

 on the wing. The greatest number of different phi-ases I have recorded 



