170 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



antagonist be of great magnitude, often succeeds in destroying him. 

 All its pretended powers of fascination avail it nothing against 

 the vengeance of this noble bird. As the snake's strength begins 

 to flag, the Mocking-bird seizes and lifts it up partly from the 

 ground, beating it with his wings ; and, when the business is com- 

 pleted, he returns to the repository of his young, mounts the 

 summit of the bush, and pours out a torrent of song in token of 

 victory. . 



" The plumage of the Mocking-bird, though none of the home- 

 liest, has nothing gaudy or brilliant in it, and, had he nothing else 

 to recommend him, would scarcely entitle him to notice ; but his 

 figure is well proportioned, and even handsome. The ease, ele- 

 gance, and rapidity of his movements, the animation of his eye, 

 and the intelligence he displays in listening and laying up lessons 

 from almost every species of the feathered creation within his 

 hearing, are really surprising, and mark the peculiarity of his 

 genius. To these qualities we may add that of a voice full, strong, 

 and musical, and capable of almost every modulation, from the 

 clear, mellow tones of the Wood Thrush, to the savage scream of 

 the Bald Eagle. In measure and accent, he faithfully follows his 

 originals. In force and sweetness of expression, he greatly im- 

 proves upon them. In his native groves, mounted on the top of a 

 tall bush or half-grown tree, in the dawn of dewy morning, while the 

 woods are already vocal with a multitude of warblers, his admirable 

 song rises pre-eminent over every competitor. The ear can listen 

 to his music alone, to which that of all the others seems a mere 

 accompaniment. Neither is this strain altogether imitative. His 

 own native notes, which are easily distinguishable by such as are 

 well acquainted with those of our various song-birds, are bold and 

 full, and varied seemingly beyond all limits. They consist of short 

 expressions of two, three, or, at the most, five or six syllables, 

 generally interspersed with imitations, and all of them uttered with 

 great emphasis and rapidity, and continued with undiminished 

 ardor for half an hour or an hour at a time. His expanded wings 

 and tail, glistening with white, and the buoyant gayety of his 

 action, arresting the eye, as his song most irresistibly does the ear, 

 he sweeps round with enthusiastic ecstasy; he mounts and de- 

 scends as his song swells or dies away ; and, as my friend Mr. 



