igo NETHER LOCHABER. 



Most birds are endowed with considerable powers of mimicry, 

 the exercise of which, under favourable circumstances, seems, we 

 have observed, to afford them great delight. The bird most cele- 

 brated in this respect is, perhaps, the mocking-thrush of America, 

 the singularly expressive and appropriate name of which, among 

 the Mexican aborigines, is Cencontlatlolli, which means four hundred 

 tongues or languages, conferred upon it in honour and acknowledg- 

 ment of the fact that, with a rich and varied song of its own, it 

 correctly imitates all other songs and sounds as well. Though we 

 have nothing equal to the four-hundred-tongued wonder of America, 

 many of our native British birds are in truth excellent mimics, 

 particularly after they have been some time in confinement, the 

 tedium and irksomeness of their imprisonment being probably 

 alleviated by a constant exercise of their gifts in this way, until 

 individuals sometimes attain to a mastery in the art that is perfectly 

 astonishing. Amongst our pets at present is a goldfinch cock, a 

 very fine bird, still perfect at all points, though he must be at least 

 a dozen years old, during ten of which he has been in our possession 

 as a favourite cage-bird. He is a magnificent singer, and the wisest 

 little fellow in the world ; you only wonder, indeed, how such a rich 

 flood of song, clear and long sustained, can issue from such a tiny 

 throat, and how such a little scarlet-capped head can contain so much 

 intelligence and sagacity. " Cowie " for so he is called, after the 

 bird-catcher from whom we purchased him is above all things an 

 extraordinary mimic. We have never, indeed, known any bird to 

 equal him in this respect. The chirping of the sparrow in the 

 hedge opposite the window at which usually hangs his cage ; the 

 twittering of swallows, as they flit past on their zigzag insect cruise ; 

 the fink, fink of the lively chaffinch ; the chirr of the ox-eye tit ; 

 the bell-like jingle of the blackbird scolding a prowling cat ; the 

 lugubrious notes of the corn bunting's evening plaint; the love- 

 cheep of the lesser white-throat ; and the quick rasping utterances 



