WHITE-BANDED MOCKING-BIRD 13 



tail it looked like a Tyrant of the Taenioptera group. 

 It was extremely shy, had a swift, easy, powerful 

 flight, and when approached would rise up high in 

 the air and soar away to a great distance. In February 

 it disappeared from the Rio Negro and did not 

 return till the following October, after the arrival of 

 all the other migrants. It was then that I had the 

 rare good fortune to hear it sing, and I shall never 

 forget the sensation I experienced when listening to 

 its matchless melody. 



While walking through a chahar-wood one bright 

 morning, my attention was suddenly arrested by notes 

 issuing from a thicket close by, to which I listened in 

 delighted astonishment, so vastly superior in melody, 

 strength, and variety did they seem to all other bird- 

 music. That it was the song of a Mimus did not occur 

 to me ; for while the music came in a continuous 

 stream, until I marvelled that the throat of any bird 

 could sustain so powerful and varied a song for so 

 long a time, it was never once degraded by the harsh 

 cries, fantastical flights, and squealing buffooneries 

 so frequently introduced by the Calandria, but every 

 note was in harmony and uttered with a rapidity and 

 joyous abandon no other bird is capable of, except, 

 perhaps, the Skylark ; while the purity of the sounds 

 gave to the whole performance something of the 

 ethereal rapturous character of the Lark's song when 

 it comes to the listener from a great height in the air. 



Presently this flow of exquisite unfamiliar music 

 ceased, while I still remained standing amongst the 

 trees, not daring to move for fear of scaring away 



