MOTIF OF BIRD SONG. 81 



nest-full of young sparrows. Even the belted 

 king-fisher cackles gleefully every time he 

 swallows a minnow, as the barn-yard hen 

 does when she has laid an egg. 



Buffon, in his charming sketch of the 

 mocking-bird, written over a hundred years 

 ago, graphically describes its dramatic pow- 

 ers and the feeling it exhibits while singing : 

 ' ' It thrills to its own voice, and accompanies 

 it with measured movements that are always 

 suited to the inexhaustible variety of its 

 phrases, natural and acquired. Its usual 

 prelude is to lift itself at first little by little, 

 its wings outspread, then to fall, head down- 

 ward, to its place again; and, after going 

 through this bizarre exercise for some time, 

 it begins its time-keeping movements, or, if 

 you please, its dance, according with the 

 different parts of its song. If it utters bright 

 and airy warblings, its wings at the same 

 time describe a multitude of circles that cross 

 themselves in the air ; one sees it thread the 

 ins and outs of a tortuous line, through which 

 it ceaselessly ascends and descends. If its 

 throat flings out a brilliant and sharply 

 quavered cadence, it accompanies it with 

 wing-strokes equally lively and smart." I 

 suppose that Buffon described all this from 

 hearsay, but it is quite as accurate as any- 

 thing else I have found in his works. As a 

 matter of fact, many of our song-birds are 

 consummate actors, within narrow limits, 

 and have a command of gesture that any 

 opera-star might well covet. The compari- 

 son between the mocking-bird and any other 

 oscine species must be cut short, however, 

 when it comes to the denouement the final 

 outcome of the song for it is here that our 

 American nightingale is incomparable. In 

 6 



