BIRDS AND FLOWERS OF EARLY SUMMER 



287 



still more loud and incessant. When once aware that you 

 have seen him, he is less solicitous to conceal himself, 

 and will sometimes mount uj) into the air, almost perpen- 

 dicularly, to the height of thirty or forty feet, with his 

 legs hanging; descending as he rose by repeated jerks, 

 as if highly irritated, or, as is vulgarly said, 'dancing 

 mad.' All this noise and gesticulation we must attribute 

 to his extreme affection for his mate and young." 



This account of Wilson's of the curious performances 

 of the Yellow-brtasted Chat reminds me of the descrip- 

 tion I gave along similar lines of the Mocking-bird, pre- 

 pared at the request of the late Alfred Newton, F. R. S., 

 which he published in his "Dictionary of Birds" (p. 584). 

 In closing my description of that famous species, I said 

 that "he is, as every student of nature knows, one of the 

 most extraordinary songsters of the entire world's avi- 

 fauna. As an imitator of the songs or cries of every 

 other species of bird he has ever listened to, the Mocking- 

 bird probably stands without a rival in the entire class ; 

 but in addition to this power, he possesses native notes 

 of great purity, strength, energy and sweetness. To some 

 degree, these latter resemble the notes of the Brown 

 Thrasher, Harporhynchus rufits, but are of greater va- 

 riety and far richer. 



"For thorough appreciation, one should catch him upon 

 a dewy morning just as the sun rises, and he flits to the 

 top of some low tree to pour forth his medley of carols in 

 soul-felt welcoming. This may be in some quarter of the 

 sunny South, perhaps near the manor-house of some 



THE YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT 



Fig. 7. These little fellows can already fly a short distance; 

 their plumage at this stage is an olive green, wliich to some de- 

 gree is protective. 



HEAD OF QUEEN ANNE'S LACE 



Fig. 8. A well-known plant, introduced from the Old World, 

 and now flourishing all over the Eastern States; wherever it is 

 found it is the bugbear of the tanner. 



broad plantation, where he can not only imitate any in- 

 dividual of the host of native songsters about him, but 

 vary the strain with any of those familiar sounds heard 

 about the house and barnyard. To see that little feath- 

 ered being so brimful of ecstacy, replete with action and 

 animation, drooping his wings, spreading his tail, so 

 buoyant as hardly to be able to retain his perch, while 

 the air is actually filled with his inimitable musical per- 

 formances, is a sight not likely to be forgotten. Clearly, 

 and with the greatest possible accuracy and rapidity, and 

 with a mellow strength even exceeding the originals, 

 he utters the notes and calls of twenty or more birds in 

 succession, ranging all the way from the plaintive air of 

 the Bluebird to the harsh, discordant cries of Jays, Spar- 

 row-hawks, and even, with equal compass, the vocifera- 

 tions of an Eagle. Catching I>reath, and tossing himself 

 lightly into the air above his perch, he alarms the en- 

 tire feathered community assembled by his imitating the 

 cries of a wounded birdling in the talons of a Hawk ; this 

 is followed perhaps by the crowing of a Cock or the 



