it raises and lowers its notes unceasingly.' ' The 

 plumage of the Mocking-Bird is not very handsome, 

 but its shape is slender and graceful, its movements 

 easy and elegant, and its eyes full of fire and intelli- 

 gence. To all these physical qualities the Mocking 

 Bird joins that of a flexible and sonorous voice, 

 which is capable of a vast variety of modulation, and 

 of rendering every shade of sound. If he hear the 

 lark trilling, he trills too ; should the dove coo in 

 his neighbourhood, he will answer the soft com- 

 plaining of the dove; if a parrot chatters at him 

 from a branch, he will chatter as cleverly as the 

 parrot ; and if the blackbird whistle from beneath 

 the foliage, he will whistle back a perfect parod}-. 

 If a traveller pass by humming a song, the Mock- 

 ing Bird will reproduce the air like an echo. 

 Sometimes he imitates the cry of the eagle, and 

 often he will cry like a child or laugh like a young 

 girl. In a word, this extraordinary bird possesses 

 to extremity the gift of imitation, and in listening 

 to him you are astonished at the sweetness which 

 his fine organ imparts to the songs of the birds that 

 he copies. When, at dawn, the winged songsters 

 of the forest commence their different tunes, the 

 Mocking Bird, perched on a tree indulges in a solo 

 which dominates over all other songs. One woidd 

 take him for a tenor of the first rank, whom all the 

 other birds accompany by way of chorus. JNIoreover, 



