BIRDS AND BATTLEFIELDS. 173 



on these battlefields preserve any traditions of 

 that era of war. 



But enough of speculation. Let us come 

 to actual observations. My headquarters were 

 at a quiet hotel on Missionary Ridge, an al- 

 most idyllic place for rest and natural history 

 study and pastime. In this region the mocking 

 birds are not abundant, only one pair having 

 been seen, while a third songster was heard at 

 a distance. On the first morning, at the peep 

 of dawn, my half- wakeful slumbers were broken 

 by the loud mimicry of a mocker, which, with 

 his mate, annually takes up summer residence 

 on the hillside below the hotel. A wonderful 

 minstrel he proved to be, more limber-tongued 

 and versatile, it seemed to me, than the mock- 

 ers I heard, two years prior, along tlie Gulf 

 coast in southern Mississippi. There one might 

 listen to eiglit or ten mockers singing simul- 

 taneously, while here my jolly vocalist had the 

 field all to himself for exercise in imitative 

 gymnastics. This fact may account for his ap- 

 parent superiority over southern rivals. It is 

 possible, too, that those birds which are more 

 hardy and therefore more strong throated, 

 migrate farther north with the advent of 

 spring. 



Be that as it may, this mocker is worthy 



