328 HABITS OF BIRDS. 



the works we have quoted contain respecting this 

 bird, which he calls 



t( That cheerful one, who knoweth all 

 The songs of all the winged choristers ; 

 And, in one sequence of melodious sounds, 

 Pours all their music*." 



He adds in a note that " a negress was once heard 

 to exclaim, ' Please God Almighty, how sweet that 

 mocking-bird sing ! he never tire.' By day and 

 night he sings alike ; when weary of mocking others, 

 the bird takes up its own natural strain, and so joy- 

 ous a creature is it, that it will jump and dance to 

 its own music. This bird is perfectly domestic, the 

 Americans holding it sacred. Would that we had 

 more of these humane prejudices in England, if that 

 word may be applied to a feeling so good in itself 

 and in its tendency t" 



By far the most circumstantial account, however, 

 of this wonderful bird (which Ray has even gone 

 so far as to place among the fabulous and doubtful 

 species in his Appendix to Willughby's Ornitho- 

 logy) is given by Wilson in a characteristically 

 graphic passage. " This celebrated and very extra- 

 ordinary bird," he says, " in extent and variety of 

 vocal powers, stands unrivalled by the whole fea- 

 thered songsters of this or perhaps any other coun- 

 try ; and shall receive from us all that attention and 

 respect which superior merit is justly entitled to. 

 The plumage of the mocking-bird, though none of 

 the homeliest, has nothing gaudy or brilliant in it ; 

 and, had he nothing else to recommend him, would 

 scarcely entitle him to notice ; but his figure is well 

 proportioned, and even handsome. The ease, ele- 

 gance, and rapidity of his movements, the animation 

 of his eye, and the intelligence he displays in listen- 

 ing and laying up lessons from almost every species 



* Madoc, ii. 48. 

 t Davies, Brazil, quoted by Soulhey, Madoc, ii, 235. 



