146 



HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



American mock-bird, the favourite songster 

 of a region, where the birds excel rather in 

 tiie 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 country 

 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 colour, 

 and a reddish bill. It is possessed not only 

 of its own natural notes, which are musical 

 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 itself 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 eagle. 

 There is no bird in the forest but it can 

 mimick ; and there is none that it has not, at 

 times, deceived by its call. But, not like 

 such as we usually see famed for mimicking 

 with us, and which 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 

 deficiency of most other song-birds in that 

 country, 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. 1 



1 Wilson's description of the American mocking-bird 

 is extremely animated ; but, in his enthusiasm, he is 

 supposed to have somewhat exaggerated the qualities of 

 the little mimic. (See page 143, ante, Note.) "The 

 voice of the mocking-bird," says the great American 

 ornithologist, " is full, strong, and musical, and capable 

 of almost every modulation, from the clear mellow tones 

 of the wood-thrush to the savage scream of the bald 

 eagle. In measure and accents he faithfully follows his 

 originals, while in force and sweetness of expression he 

 greatly improves upon them. In his native woods, on a 

 dewy morning, his song rises above every competitor, 

 for the others seem merely as inferior accompaniments. 

 His own notes are bold and full, and varied seemingly 

 beyond all limits. They consist of short expressions of 

 two, three, or at most five or six syllables, generally ex- 

 pressed with great emphasis and rapidity, and continued 

 with undiminished ardour, for half an hour or an hour 

 at a time. While singing, he expands his wings and 

 his tail, glistening with white, keeping time to his own 

 music, and the buoyant gaiety of his action is no less 

 fascinating than his song. He sweeps round with 

 enthusiastic ecstasy, he mounts and descends as his song 

 swells or dies away ; he bounds aloft, as Bartram says, 

 with the celerity of an arrow, as if to recover or recal 

 his very soul, expired in the last elevated strain. A 

 bystander might suppose that the whole feathered tribes 

 had assembled together on a trial of skill ; each striving 

 to produce his utmost effect, so perfect are his imitations. 

 He often deceives the sportsman, and even birds them- 



CHAP. III. 



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 

 arid wonder. How surprising that so great a 

 voice can reside in so small a body ! such per- 

 severance in so minute an animal ! With 

 what a musical propriety are the sounds it 

 produces modulated! The note at one time 

 drawn out with a long breath, now stealing 

 off into a different cadence, now interrupted 

 by a break, then changing into a new note by 

 an unexpected transition; now seeming to 

 renew the same strain, then deceiving expec- 

 tation! She sometimes seems to murmur 

 within herself; full, deep, sharp, swift, draw- 

 ling, trembling; now at the top, the middle, 

 and the bottom of the scale ! In short, in 

 that little bill seems to reside all the melody 

 which man has vainly laboured to bring from 

 a variety of musical instruments. Some even 

 seem to be possessed of a different song from 

 the rest, and contend with each other with 

 great ardour. The bird overcome is then seen 

 only to discontinue its song with its life." 



This most famous of the feathered tribe 

 visits England in the beginning of April, and 

 leaves us in August. It is found but in some 

 of the southern parts of the country, being 



selves are sometimes imposed upon by this admirable 

 mimic. In confinement he loses little of the power or 

 energy of his song. He whistles for the dog ; CsDsar 

 starts up, wags his tail, and runs to meet his master. 

 He cries like a hurt chicken, and the hen hurries about, 

 with feathers on end, to protect her injured brood. He 

 repeats the tune taught him, though it be of considerable 

 length, with great accuracy. He runs over the notes of 

 the canary, and of the red bird, with such superior exe- 

 cution and effect, that the mortified songsters confess 

 his triumph by their silence. His fondness for variety, 

 some suppose to injure his song. His imitations of the 

 brown thrush are often interrupted by the crowing of 

 cocks; and his exquisite warblings after the blue bird, 

 are mingled with the screaming of swallows, or the 

 cackling of hens. During moonlight, both in the wild 

 and tame state, he sings the whole night long. The 

 hunters, in their night excursions, know that the moon 

 is rising the instant they begin to hear his delightful 

 solo. Alter Shakspeare, Harrington attributes in part 

 the exquisiteness of the nightingale's song to the silence 

 of the night; but if so, what are we to think of the bird 

 which, in the open glare of day, overpowers and often 

 silences all competition ? 9 His natural notes partake 

 of a character similar to those of the brown thrush, but 

 they are more sweet, more expressive, more varied, and 

 uttered with greater rapidity.'' 



