ably never studied the woodpeckers in 

 their native haunts, and the admirable 

 cleverness with which he assimilated the 

 gist of what travelers, explorers, natural- 

 ists, and romancers had published on the 

 subject stands as a special badge of his 

 genius. In this regard he was like Shak- 

 spere, a great robber who appropriated the 

 crude materials discovered by others and 

 worked them over to his own satisfaction. 

 Although he affected to disdain verse, he 

 was essentially a poet, and let no oppor- 

 tunity for making a romantic impression 

 sHp his pen. 



To this day Buffon's description of the 

 mocking-bird's singing is better than that 

 of any American ornithologist, so far as I 

 have read. He had never heard our mar- 

 velous mimic; what he depended upon 

 was found in the various crude reports of 

 travelers who had penetrated our Southern 

 woods and the field-notes of two or three 

 amateur naturalists then laying the ground- 

 sills of that beautiful structure of bird-lit- 

 erature which to-day is receiving its final 

 decorations. After having studied the 

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