376 



FOREIGN BIRDS. 



Besides these, many more came from regions re- 

 mote, 

 But whom to description we cannot devote. 

 Some sent by the Pigeon excuses to make ; 

 Some alleged inability journies to take : 



by him. He loses little of his power and energy by confine- 

 ment. He whistles for tbe dog ; he squeaks ont like a hurt 

 chicken : the mewing of a cat, the creaking of a wheelbarrow, 

 the quivering notes of the canary, the clear whistling of the 

 Virginian nii^htingale, are alike by him distinctly and accurately 

 expressed. 



Both in his native and his domesticated state, during the 

 stillness of night, as soon as the moon rises, he begins his solo, 

 and during the whole of the night makes the neighbourhood 

 ring with his inimitable melody. 



There is very little difficulty in rearing these birds in America. 

 The eagerness with which they are sought after in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Philadelphia has rendered them extremely scarce 

 for many miles around that city. They have been known also 

 to pair and breed there in confinement. The price paid for a 

 mocking-bird at Philadelphia has been from seven to fifteen 

 dollars ; fifty have been paid for a remarkably fine singer. 



We learn from a paper in the Philosophical Transactions , vol. 

 Ixii. part ii. page 284, by the Hon. Daines Barrington, that 

 a mocking-bird was once to be heard in London ; but here, it 

 seems, his notes were chiefly if not entirely the imitations of 

 the notes of other birds: "his pipe," says Mr. Barrington, 

 " comes nearest to our nightingale of any bird I have ever met 

 with." It is also, I understand, now to be seen occasionally in 

 London. A keeper of a menagery informs me that he gave five 

 pounds for one not long since. 



