204 HABITS OF BIRDS. 
erably hoarser. All these are uttered with great 
vehemence, in such different keys, and with such 
peculiar modulations of voice, as sometimes to 
seem at a considerable distance, and instantly as if 
just beside you; now on this hand, now on that; so 
that, from these manceuvres of ventriloquism, you 
are utterly at a loss to ascertain from what partic- 
ular spot or quarter they proceed. If the weather 
be mild and serene, with clear moonlight, he con- 
tinues gabbling in the same strange dialect, with 
very little intermission, during the whole night, as if 
disputing with his own echoes, but probably with 
a design of inviting the passing females to his re- 
treat; for, when the season is farther advanced, they 
are seldom heard during the night. 
“While the female chat is sitting, the cries of the 
male are still more loud andincessant. When once 
aware that you have seen him, he is less solicitous 
to conceal himself, and will sometimes mount up 
into the air, almost perpendicularly, to the height 
of thirty or forty feet, with his legs hanging; de- 
scending, as he rose, by repeated jerks, as if highly 
irritated, or, as is vulgarly said, ‘dancing mad.’ 
All this noise and gesticulation we must attribute to 
his extreme affection for his mate and young; and 
when we consider the great distance which in all 
probability he comes, the few young produced at a 
time, and that seldom more than once in a season, 
we can see the wisdom of Providence very mani- 
festly in the ardency of his passions.”* 
We have introduced this description more to show 
the variety of note and voice which actually occurs 
in a bird, than as exhibiting an instance even of al- 
leged imitation; for though it is said some of the 
sounds uttered by the polyglot-chat are “ something 
like the barking of young puppies,” and “ others 
not unlike the mewing of a cat,” it is not averred, 
* Am, Omith., i., 92. 
