MODE 



3870 



MODENA 



THE MOCKING BIRD 



Then from the neighboring thicket the mocking 

 bird, wildest of singers, 



Swinging aloft on a willow spray that hiing o'er 

 the water, 



Shook from his little throat such floods of deliri- 

 ous music, 



That the whole air and the woods and the waves 

 seemed silent to listen. 



Nature, though lavish in her gifts when she 

 created the throat of the mocking bird, denied 

 it a garment of 

 brilliant hue. 

 The ashy-gray 

 coat, darker wings 

 and tail, white 

 outer tail-feath- 

 ers and grimy- 

 white breast con- 

 stitute a modest 

 garb indeed. The 

 bird is from nine to eleven inches in length, 

 and is delicately and beautifully proportioned. 

 Male and female are almost alike in coloring, 

 the female having a little less of white in her 

 plumage. These birds range from eastern Ne- 

 braska, southern Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio 

 and Maryland south to eastern Texas, southern 

 Florida and the Bahamas, but are found in 

 greatest numbers in the Southern states. 



The nest is built in thickets, low trees or 

 bushes, and contains four to six pale greenish- 

 blue or bluish-white eggs. In the winter the 

 mocking bird feeds on the berries of the holly, 

 smilax and myrtle, but its food during the 

 nesting season is chiefly insects and worms. If 

 taken captive when young this bird becomes 

 easily accustomed to cage life. E.T.S. 



MODE. Mode means manner, and the mode 

 of a verb is that particular form from which we 

 learn its manner of asserting that is, whether 

 it is stating an actual fact, giving a command, 

 or expressing a doubt, wish, possibility or mere 

 supposition. The word mood is often used. 



Three English Modes. Indicative. When we 

 say, "She sings," "She cannot sing," or "Is she 

 singing?" the verb either states a fact or asks 

 a question as to a fact. It is said, to be in the 

 indicative mode. 



Subjunctive. When we say, "You would ad- 

 mire her voice if she were singing her best," 

 the verb were singing expresses what is only a 

 supposition, for it is clear from the sentence 

 that she is not singing her best. When Shelley, 

 addressing the skylark, wrote: 



Better than all treasures 

 That in books are found, 

 Thy skill to poet were, thou scorner of the ground, 



he was also expressing a supposition, were be- 

 ing equivalent to would be. When Lady Mac- 

 beth said, "Now good digestion wait on appe- 

 tite," she was expressing a wish. In such 

 constructions as these the verb is said to be 

 in the subjunctive mode. 



In this mode the present indicative forms of 

 the verb to be / am, you are, he is become 

 (if) I be, (if) you be, (if) he be plural the 

 same; the past indicative forms / was, you 

 were, he was become (if) I were, (if) you 

 were, (if) he were. In other verbs it is only 

 in the third person singular of the present tense 

 that the root-form of the verb in the sub- 

 junctive differs from the indicative, he calls 

 becoming (if) he call. 



Imperative. When we say, "Sing louder," or 

 "Lead us not into temptation," the verb ex- 

 presses a command or an entreaty, and is said 

 to be in the imperative mode. Its subject is 

 always thou, you or ye, generally understood, 

 and its tense always present. These three are 

 the only true modes in English grammar. 



So-Called Potential Mode. Some grammari- 

 ans recognize a potential mode, in which they 

 include those forms of the verb that employ 

 different auxiliaries to express ability, possi- 

 bility, necessity and the like. These uses are 

 illustrated in the following sentences: She can 

 or could sing (ability) ; she may or might sing 

 (possibility or liberty) ; she must sing to keep 

 in training (necessity) ; she should sing every 

 day (obligation) ; she would sing if she were 

 asked (willingness) ; she would sing in spite of 

 her cold (determination). 



Present Status of the Subjunctive Mode. We 

 hear a great deal nowadays to the effect that 

 the subjunctive mode is becoming obsolete and 

 will soon be dropped from the language. Yet, 

 in spite of the fact that it is not now used 

 nearly so much as formerly, its forms must be 

 learned by every one who makes any pretension 

 to speak correctly. There are certain cases, as 

 has been explained, in which there is no ques- 

 tion as to the necessity of using the subjunc- 

 tive. There are others in which the subjunc- 

 tive, though not insisted upon, helps the writer 

 to express fine shades of meaning that it would 

 be impossible to bring out in any other way. 



MODENA, mawda'nah, a city in Northern 

 Italy lying in a fertile plain between the Sec- 

 chia and Panaro rivers, about twenty miles 

 south of the Po River; it is the capital of the 

 province of the same name. Modena is the 

 ancient Mutina that the Romans captured 

 from the Boii in 215 B. c. It was almost wholly 



