168 ON THE ST. AUGUSTINE ROAD. 
entered Florida I had been saying that the 
mocking-bird, save for his occasional mim- 
icry of other birds, sang so exactly like the 
thrasher that I did not believe I could tell 
one from the other. Now, however, on this 
St. Augustine road, I suddenly became 
aware of a bird singing somewhere in ad- 
vance, and as I listened again I said aloud, 
‘with full persuasion, “There! that’s a 
thrasher!” ‘There was a something of dif- 
ference: a shade of coarseness in the voice, 
perhaps; a tendency to force the tone, as 
we say of human singers, —a something, at 
all events, and the longer I hearkened, the 
more confident I felt that the bird was a 
thrasher. And so it was, —the first one I 
had heard in Florida, although I had seen 
many. Probably the two birds have pecu- 
liarities of voice and method that, with 
longer familiarity on the listener’s part, 
would render them easily distinguishable. 
On general principles, I must believe that 
to be true of all birds. But the experience 
just described is not to be taken as prov- 
ing that JZ have any such familiarity. 
Within a week afterward, while walking 
along the railway, I came upon a thrasher 
