540 



A HISTORY OF 



safety. All their season of music and plea- 

 sure is employed in the more northern cli- 

 mates, where they sing most delightfully, 

 perched among the forests of maples, with 

 which those countries abound. They build 

 their nests in hedges; and lay six bluish- 

 green eggs spotted with black. 



The stare, distinguishable from the rest of 

 this tribe by the glossy green of its feathers 

 in some lights, and the purple in others, breeds 

 in hollow trees, eaves of houses, towers, ruins, 

 cliffs, and often in high rocks over the sea. 

 It lays four or five eggs of a pale greenish 

 ash-colour, and makes its nest of straw, small 

 fibres of roots, and such like. Its voice is 

 rougher than the rest of this kind ; but what 

 it wants in the melody of its note, it compen- 

 sates by the facility with which it is taught 

 to speak. In winter these birds assemble 

 in vast flocks, and feed upon worms and in- 

 sects. At the approach of spring, they as- 

 semble in fields as if in consultation together, 

 and for three or four days seem to take no 

 nourishment : the greater part leave the coun- 

 try ; the rest breed here, and bring up their 

 young. 



To this tribe might be added above a 

 a hundred other birds of nearly the thrush 

 size, and living like them upon fruit and ber- 

 ries. Words could not afford variety enough 

 to describe all the beautiful tints that adorn 

 the foreign birds of the thrush kind. The 

 brilliant green of the emerald, the flaming red 

 of the ruby, the purple of the amethyat, or 

 the bright blue of the sapphire, could not, 

 by the most artful combination, show any 

 thing so truly lively or delightful to the sight, 

 as the feathers of the chilcoqui or the tauto- 



tal. Passing, therefore, over these beautiful, 

 but little-known, birds, I will only mention 

 the American mock-bird, the favourite songs- 

 ter of a region, where the birds excel rather 

 in the beauty of their plumage than the sweet- 

 ness of their notes. 



This valuable bird does not seem to vie 

 with the feathered inhabitants of that coun- 

 try in the beauty of its plumage, content with 

 qualifications that endear it to mankind much 

 more. It is but a plain bird to the eye, about 

 the size of a thrush, of a white and gray co- 

 lour, and a reddish bill. It is possessed not 

 only of its own natural notes, which are mu- 

 sical and solemn, but it can assume the tone 

 of every other animal in the wood, from the 

 wolf to the raven. It seems even to sport it- 

 self in leading them astray. It will, at one 

 time, allure the lesser birds with the.call of 

 their males, and then terrify them, when they 

 have come near, with the screams of the ea- 

 gle. There is no bird in the forest but it 

 can mimic ; and there is none that it has not 

 at times deceived by its call. But, not like 

 such as we usually see famed for mimicing 

 with us, and who have no particular merit of 

 their own, the mock-bird is ever surest to 

 please when it is most itself. At those times 

 it usually frequents the houses of the Ameri- 

 can planters; and, sitting all night on the 

 chimney-top, pours forth the sweetest and the 

 most various notes of any bird whatever. It 

 would seem, if accounts be true, that the de- 

 ficiency of most other song-birds in that coun- 

 try, is made up by this bird alone. They 

 often build their nests in the fruit-trees about 

 houses, feed upon berries and other fruits, 

 and are easily rendered domestic. 



CHAPTER CV1II. 



OF THE NIGHTINGALE, AND OTHER SOFT-BILLED SONG-BIRDS. 



The Nightingale is not only famous among 

 the moderns for its singing, but almost every 

 one of the ancients, who undertook to de- 

 scribe beautiful nature, has contributed to 

 raise its reputation. " The nightingale," says 



Pliny, " that for fifteen days and nights, hid 

 in the thickest shades, continues her note 

 without intermission, deserves our attention 

 and wonder. How surprising that so great 

 a voice can reside in so small a body! such 



