IMITATION AND MIMICRY. 203 



first observed and figured by Catesby, who discov- 

 ered its singular manners by the difficulty he had in 

 shooting one. He observed also iLhat 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, arid 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 oifended 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 I 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- 



