20 B Y- WA YS AND BIRD-NO TES. 



dormer windows on the roof in front, and 

 graduated parapets to hide the gables, a long 

 lean-to veranda and a row of chimneys, a dark, 

 heavy-looking building near the south side of 

 the Way. In a small tree just east of this 

 house used to sing a mocking-bird whose voice 

 was as much above the average of his kind as 

 Patti s voice is above the average woman s 

 voice. If one could get a caged bird to sing 

 as that one did, he might profitably advertise 

 it for concerts. A friend and I sat down 

 across the Way from the house, and, while the 

 gulf breeze poured over us and the bird music 

 filled our ears, got a sketch of the charmingly 

 picturesque old place ; but somehow we could 

 not put in the song of the wonderful mocking 

 bird. 



Bird-fanciers and bird-buyers may profit by 

 what I now whisper to them, to wit : the best- 

 voiced mocking-birds, without a doubt, are 

 those bred in Middle Florida and Southern 

 Alabama. I have no theory in connection 

 with this statement of a fact ; but if I were 

 going to risk the reputation of our country on 

 the singing of a mocking-bird against a Euro 

 pean nightingale, I should choose my cham 

 pion from the hill-country in the neighborhood 

 of Tallahassee, or from the environs of Mo 

 bile. 



No doubt proper food has much to do with 

 the development of the bird in all its parts, 

 and it may be that the dry, fertile, chocolate- 

 tinted hills that swell up along the Gulf Coast 

 produce just the berries, insects, and other tid 

 bits needed for the mocking-bird s fullest 

 growth. Then, perhaps, the climate best suits 

 the bird s nature. Be this as it may, I have 



