IMITATION AND MIMICRY. 203 
first observed and figured by Catesby, who discoy- 
ered its singular manners by the difficulty he had in 
shooting one. He observed also that it is no less 
adroit in dancing than in the varied modulations of 
its voice. ‘It is,” says Wilson, in a highly charac- 
teristic sketch, “a very singular bird. In its voice 
and manners, and the habit it has of keeping con- 
cealed while shifting and vociferating around you, 
it differs from most other birds with which I am ac- 
quainted, and has considerable claims to originality 
of character. It arrives in Pennsylvania about the 
first week in May, its term of residence here be- 
ing scarcely four months. When he has once taken 
up his residence in a favourite situation, which is 
almost always in close thickets of hazel, brambles, 
vines, and thick underwood, he becomes jealous of 
his possessions, and seems offended at the least in- 
trusion; scolding every passenger as soon as they 
come in view, in a great variety of odd and uncouth 
monosyllables, which it is difficult to describe, but 
which may be readily imitated so as to deceive the 
bird himself, and draw him after you for a quarter 
of a mile at a time, as 1 have sometimes amused 
myself in doing, and frequently without once seeing 
him. On these occasions his responses are con- 
stant and rapid, strongly expressive of anger and 
anxiety ; and while the bird itself remains unseen, 
the voice shifts from place to place among the 
bushes, as if it proceeded from a spirit. First are 
heard a repetition of short notes, resembling the 
whistling of the wings of a duck or teal, beginning 
loud and rapid, and falling lower and slower till 
they end in detached notes; then a succession of 
others, something like the barking of young pup- 
pies, is followed by a variety of hollow guttural 
sounds, each eight or ten times repeated, more 
like those proceeding from the throat of a quad- 
ruped than that of a bird; which are succeeded by 
others not unlike the mewing of a cat, but consid- 
