MOCKING-BIRD. 145 



and perhaps with some difficulty to the spot, that 

 it proceeded from the familiar personage before us. 

 With respect to the latter, I have been assured 

 by an observant friend, George Marcy, Esq., of the 

 Kepp, that he, on one occasion, counted no less 

 than eighteen different notes, proceeding from a 

 Mocking-bird perched on a tree in his garden. 



It is in the stillness of the night, when, like 

 his European namesake, he delights 



" with wakeful melody to cheer 



The livelong hours," 



that the song of this bird is heard to advantage. 

 Sometimes, when, desirous of watching the first 

 flight of Urania Sloaneus, I have ascended the 

 mountains before break of day, I have been charmed 

 with the rich gushes and bursts of melody proceed- 

 ing from this most sweet songster, as he stood 

 on tiptoe on the topmost twig of some sour-sop or 

 orange tree, in the rays of the bright moonlight. 

 Now he is answered by another, and now another 

 joins the chorus, from the trees around, till the 

 woods and savannas are ringing with the delightful 

 sounds of exquisite and innocent joy. Nor is the 

 season of song confined, as in many birds, to that 

 period when courtship and incubation call forth the 

 affections and sympathies of the sexes towards each 

 other. The Mocking-bird is vocal at all seasons ; 

 and it is probably owing to his permanency of song, 

 as well as to his incomparable variety, that the 

 savannas and lowland groves of Jamaica are almost 

 always alive with melody, though our singing birds 

 are so few. 



H 



