APPENDIX. 177 



IMITATION. Contin. 



" While walking through a chanar-wood one bright morning, 

 my attention was suddenly arrested by notes issuing from a 

 thicket close by, and to which I listened in delighted astonish- 

 ment, so vastly superior in melody, strength, and variety did 

 they seem to all other bird music. 



" That it was the song of a Mimus did not occur to me, for 

 while the music came in a continuous stream, until I mar- 

 velled that the throat of any bird could sustain so powerful and 

 varied a song for so long a time, it was never once degraded 

 by the harsh cries, fantastical flights, and squealing buffooneries 

 so frequently introduced by the 'Calandria,' but every note 

 was in harmony and uttered with a rapidity and joyous aban- 

 don no other bird is capable of, except perhaps the skylark, 

 while the purity of the sounds gave to the whole performance 

 something of the ethereal rapturous character of the Lark's song 

 when it comes to the listener from a great height in the air. 



" Presently this flow of exquisite unfamiliar music ceased, 

 while I still remained standing amongst the trees, not daring 

 to move for fear of scaring away the strange vocalist. 



"After a short interval of silence I had a fresh surprise. 

 From the very spot whence the torrent of melody had issued 

 burst out the shrill, confused, impetuous song of the small yel- 

 low and gray Patagonian Flycatcher (Stiff matura albocinerea). 

 It irritated me to hear this familiar and trivial song after the 

 other, and I began to fear that my entertainer had flown away 

 unobserved ; but in another moment, from the same spot, came 

 the mellow matin-song of the Dinca Finch, and this quickly 

 succeeded by the silvery, bell-like, thrilling song of the ' Chur- 

 rinche,' or little scarlet Tyrant-bird. Then followed many 

 other familiar notes and songs, the flute-like evening call of 

 the Crested Tinamou, the gay hurried twittering of the Black- 

 headed Goldfinch, and the leisurely-uttered delicious strains of 

 the Yellow Cardinal, all repeated with miraculous fidelity. 



12 



