HAUNTS OF THE MOCKING-BIRD. 15 
has much to do with this. But the mocking- 
bird, the brown-thrush, and the cat-bird are 
notable exceptions to the rule. Nature has 
endowed them with an instinctive impulse 
toward a cultivation of their vocal powers, as 
well as with voices capable of wonderful 
achievements. 
A mocking-bird reared in captivity becomes 
much more a mere mimic than the wild bird, 
and yet, so strong is the hereditary tendency, 
the caged bird will perfectly sound the notes 
of a grossbeak or a blue-jay without ever hav- 
ing heardthem. I have heard a mocking-bird, 
reared in a cage in Indiana, utter with singu- 
lar accuracy the cry of the Southern wood- 
pecker (Picus querulus), a bird I have never 
seen north of the Cumberland Mountains. 
Many little incidents noted in the woods 
and in the orchards haunted by the mocking- 
bird have led me to conclude that a genuine 
sense of the importance of singing well in- 
spires some of its most remarkable efforts. 
One morning in March, 1881, I looked out of 
a window in the old City Hotel at Talla- 
hassee, and witnessed a pitched battle of song 
between a brown-thrush and a mocking-bird. 
In the grounds about the Capitol building 
across the street stood some venerable oak 
trees just beginning to leave out. The birds 
had each chosen a perch on the highest prac- 
ticable point of a tree. They were not more 
than fifty feet apart, and with swelling throats 
were evidently vying fiercely with each other. 
This gave me the best possible opportunity of 
comparing their styles and methods of expres- 
sion. ‘To my ear the brown-thrush in the wild 
state is a sweeter singer than any caged mock- 
