THE THRUSH AND ITS AFFINITIES. 23 



bird, the favorite songster of a region, where the birds 

 excel rather in the beauty of their plumage, than the sweet- 

 ness of their notes. 



This valuable bird does not seem to vie with the feather- 

 ed inhabitants of that country, in the beauty of its plumage, 

 content with qualifications that endear it to mankind much 

 more. It is but a plain bird to the eye, about the size of 

 a Thrush, of a white and gray color, and a reddish bill. It 

 is possessed not only of its own natural notes, which are 

 musical and solemn, but it can assume the tone of every 

 other animal in the wood, from the wolf to the raven. It 

 seems even to sport itself in leading them astray. It will, 

 at one time, allure the lesser birds with the call of their 

 males, and then terrify them, when they have come near, 

 with the screams of the eagle. There is no bird in the 

 forest but it can mimic ; and there is none that it has not, 

 at times, deceived by its call. But, not like such as we 

 usually see famed for mimicking with us, and who have no 

 particular merit of their own, the mock-bird is ever surest 

 to please when it is most itself. At those times it usually 

 frequents the houses of the American planters ; and, sitting 

 all night on the chimney-top, pours forth the sweetest and 

 the most various notes of any bird whatever. It would 

 seem, if accounts be true, that the deficiency of most other 

 song-birds in that country, is made up by this bird alone. 

 They often build their nests in the fruit-trees about houses, 

 feed upon berries arid other fruits, and are easily rendered 

 domestic* 



