200 THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 



is sounded very beautifully. After this follow strains 

 that sometimes include the whole song of the chimney 

 swallow, song thrush, quail, woodlark, linnet, field lark, 

 and crested lark, the finch and sparrow, the laughter 

 of woodpeckers, and shrieking of herons, all of which 

 are produced in the natural tone." 



" The paradise bird," says Alix, " has equally with 

 the group of singing birds excellent imitative powers. 

 I had one, writes Blythe, that mimicked the hittacincla 

 macrowra so well that no one could distinguish their 

 songs. I also owned another having the same power. 

 There is no sound that it can not imitate. It crows so 

 perfectly that cocks answer it, and it barks and mews 

 quite as well, bleats like a goat or sheep, howls plain- 

 tively like a beaten cur, croaks like a crow, and sings 

 the song of many birds." * The American mocking 

 bird, which has been referred to as a splendid singer, 

 has also a remarkable talent for mimicry. " In its 

 native woods," says Brehm, "it mocks the wild birds; 

 near human dwellings, it weaves into its song all sorts 

 of sounds heard there. Crowing, cackling, quacking, 

 mewing, barking, creaking of doors and weathervanes, 

 the hum of a saw and rattle of a mill — all these and a 

 hundred other noises are reproduced with the utmost 

 faithfulness."! European thrushes, too, have, Brehm 

 says, a strong propensity to imitation, though they con- 

 fine it more to their own kind. Yet the blackbird 

 " mimics birds of strange species and sometimes be- 

 comes a veritable mocking bird." J: According to 



* F. Alix, L'esprit de nos betes, p. 362. 



f See, too, Hudson's beautiful description of Patagonian mock- 

 ing birds. The Naturalist in La Plata, p. 276. 



\ Romanes says that both the blackbird and the crow have been 

 known to mimic a cock. Mental Evolution in Animals, p. 242. 



