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 manoeuvres 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 and incessant. 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. Ornith., i., 92. 



