278 GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS 
danger of extermination, through the fact of its being universally 
captured throughout the South and sold as a cage-bird, both for 
home use and for export.” 
Painted Bunting or Nonpareil 
“This splendid, gay, and docile bird, known to Americans as 
the Nonpareil (the unequalled), and to the French Louisianans as 
le pape, inhabits the woods of the low countries of the Southern 
states. 
“For the sake of their song as well as beauty of plumage they 
are commonly domesticated in the houses of the French inhabit- 
ants of New Orleans and its vicinity. . . . 
“They are commonly caught in trap-cages, to which they are 
sometimes allured by a stuffed bird, which they descend to at- 
tack; and they have been known to live in captivity for upwards 
of ten years.” — THomMas NUTTALL. 
“The Mockingbird, as you see, has sombre gray 
plumage like his cousin, the Catbird, that we all know so 
well that I think he should drop a name that belies 
his wonderful musical ability, and be called the ‘ Northern 
Mockingbird.’ Even though the Mocker is caged, you 
can see the resemblance, in the way in which he twitches 
his tail, and first throws back his beak and then looks 
sideways, to our merry singer of the garden who often 
makes us think that half a dozen birds are perching in 
the drying-yard when he sits upon the top of a clothes- 
pole and lets his imagination float away with his voice. 
“The Brown Thrasher, too, with the long, curved beak, 
brown back, and speckled breast, is also a first cousin 
and has the Mockingbird habit of mounting high up 
when he sings and looking straight up at the sky; while 
the Wrens, one and all, belong to this famous family group 
