VENTRILOQUIAL AND IMITATIVE POWER OF BIRDS. 



BY E. E. FISH. 



Those who have observed the habits of birds know that they 

 possess in considerable degree the power of imitation, but only 

 at a recent period have naturalists recognized in them the pos- 

 session of that rarer gift, ventriloquism. Most of the thrush 

 family [Turdidce) have to some extent this power, though some 

 species rarely exercise it. When we hear the two thrushes 

 {Turdus fiiscescens and Turdns mustelinus), we look for them much 

 higher in the trees than they really are. Before people become 

 accustomed to this voice trick of these thrushes, they are often 

 perplexed in locating the singers. 



I remember one extreme instance: a wood thrush was singing 

 his differently-keyed strains with great power and sweetness. I 

 was looking through the branches of a thick hemlock, expecting 

 to see him up thirty or forty feet in the tree. Instead of this ele- 

 vation, he was within three or four feet of the ground, not 

 twenty feet from me. For a long time he continued his songs,. 

 but all the time with this ventriloquial effect. 



The golden crowned thrush [Sciunis aurocapillus) has a habit 

 of throwing its voice to a great distance. The clear military 

 notes " I see ! I see ! " will sometimes startle you with their 

 apparent nearness, when in fact the bird may be in quite another 

 part of the woods; then again, when the bird is within a few 

 feet of you, the song will appear to come from a distant locality. 



Even the familiar robin {^Turdus niigratorius) often makes use 

 of this power with good effect. When he sings at mating time, 

 or to attract attention, or from his innate love of song, he will 

 carol away with such an abandon and fullness of tone that he 

 appears to be much nearer than he really is; but when he sings 

 exclusively for his mate, or for the newly fledged young whose 



