206 HABITS OP 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. 



