HAUNTS OF THE MOCKING-BIRD. 13 
but strikingly, almost startlingly, individual 
and unique. The bird appeared to be dying 
of an ecstasy of musical inspiration. The 
lower it fell the louder and more rapturous 
became its voice, until the song ended on the 
ground in a burst of incomparable vocal power. 
It remained for a short time, after its song 
was ended, crouching where it had fallen, with 
its wings outspread, and quivering and pant- 
ing as if utterly exhausted; then it leaped 
boldly into the air and flew away into an ad- 
jacent thicket. 
Since then, as I have said, three cther op- 
portunities have been afforded me of witness- 
ing this curiously pleasing exhibition of bird- 
acting. I can half imagine what another 
ode Keats might have written had his eyes 
seen and his ears heard that strange, fasci- 
nating, dramatically rendered song. Or it 
might better have suited Shelley’s powers of ex- 
pression. It is said that the grandest bursts of 
oratory are those which contain a strong trace 
of a reserve of power. This may betrue; but 
is not the best song that wherein the voice 
sweeps, with the last expression of ecstasy, 
from wave to wave of music until with a su- 
preme effort it wreaks its fullest power, thus 
ending in a victory over the final obstacle, as 
if with its utmost reach? Be this as it may, 
whoever may be fortunate enough to hear the 
mocking-bird’s “dropping song,” and at the 
same time see the bird’s action, will at once 
have the idea of genius, pure and simple, sug- 
gested to him. 
The high, beautiful country around Talla- 
hassee, in Middle Florida, is the paradise of 
mocking-birds. I am surprised to find this 
