42 WHIMSICAL WHITE-THROATS 



At the first opportunity we went again 

 down the shady road, and placed ourselves 

 beside a clump of trees, near where the mys- 

 terious bird had sung. Before long we heard 

 him afar, and he gradually approached, sing- 

 ing as he came, till at last he obligingly flew 

 to the top of a small tree, perhaps fifteen 

 feet high and twenty feet from us, and, with 

 eccentric flourishes of body, shouted out his 

 extraordinary solo. But again we could not 

 see him well, for the sun was behind him. 

 We carefully studied his unique perform- 

 ance, however, and while in arrangement it 

 greatly resembled part of the song of the 

 white-throat, being three sets of triplets 

 rapidly repeated, it differed in every other 

 way. 



The song of the white-throat is dignified, 

 calm, and tranquil in tone and manner, while 

 his clumsy mocker threw his head far back 

 and flung his notes into the air with the ut- 

 most vehemence and abandon, and with great 

 apparent effort. He was restless, constantly 

 fidgeting, throwing up his tail, and jerking 

 himself about in the pauses of his song. In 

 the genuine melody the triplets sound like 



