206 HABITS OF BIRDS. 
squealing out as if caught; this soon brings a num- 
ber of his own tribe around him, who all join in the 
frolic, darting about the hawk, and feigning the cries 
of a bird sorely wounded and already under the 
clutches of its devourer; while others lie concealed 
in bushes ready to second their associates in the 
attack. But this ludicrous farce often terminates 
tragically. ‘The hawk, singling out one of the most 
insolent and provoking, sweeps upon him in an un- 
guarded moment, and offers him up a sacrifice to 
his hunger and resentment. In an instant the tune 
is changed ; all their buffoonery vanishes, and loud 
and incessant screams proclaim disaster. 
** Wherever the jay has had the advantage of ed- 
ucation from man, he has not only shown himself 
an apt scholar, but his suavity of manners seems 
equalled only by his art and contrivances, though it 
must be confessed that his itch for thieving keeps 
pace with all his other acquirements. Dr. Mease, 
on the authority of Colonel Postell, of South Caro- 
lina, informs me that a blue-jay, which was brought 
up in the family of the latter gentleman, had all the 
tricks and loquacity of a parrot, pilfered everything 
he could conveniently carry off, and hid them in 
holes and crevices, answered to his name with 
great sociability when called on, could articulate a 
number of words pretty distinctly, and when he 
heard any uncommon noise or loud talking, seemed 
impatient to contribute his share to the general fes- 
tivity (as he probably thought it) by a display of all 
the oratorical powers he was possessed of.’* 
The American mocking-bird attracted the notice 
of the earlier voyagers to the New World by the 
variety of its notes and the extraordinary compass 
and fineness of its voice, and, above, all by its appa- 
rent talent of mimicking the notes and cries of other 
birds and beasts. According also to Fernandez, 
* Am, Ornith., i, 16, 
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