168 ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE ROAD. 



entered Florida I had been saying that the 

 mocking-bird, save for his occasional mim- 

 icry of other birds, sang so exactly like the 

 thrasher that I did not believe I could tell 

 one from the other. Now, however, on this 

 St. Augustine road, I suddenly became 

 aware of a bird singing somewhere in ad- 

 vance, and as I listened again I said aloud, 

 with full persuasion, " There ! that 's a 

 thrasher ! " There was a something of dif- 

 ference : a shade of coarseness in the voice, 

 perhaps ; a tendency to force the tone, as 

 we say of human singers, a something, at 

 all events, and the longer I hearkened, the 

 more confident I felt that the bird was a 

 thrasher. And so it was, the first one I 

 had heard in Florida, although I had seen 

 many. Probably the two birds have pecu- 

 liarities of voice and method that, with 

 longer familiarity on the listener's part, 

 would render them easily distinguishable. 

 On general principles, I must believe that 

 to be true of all birds. But the experience 

 just described is not to be taken as prov- 

 ing that / have any such familiarity. 

 Within a week afterward, while walking 

 along the railway, I came upon a thrasher 



