178 WOOD NOTES WILD. 



IMITATION. Contin. 



"How much was my wonder and admiration increased by 

 the discovery that only one sweet singer had produced all these 

 diverse strains ! The discovery was only made when he began 

 to repeat songs of species that never visit Patagonia. I knew 

 then that I was at last listening to the famed White Mocking- 

 bird, just returned from his winter travels, and repeating in 

 this southern region the notes he had acquired in sub-tropical 

 forests a thousand miles away. These imitations at length 

 ceased, after which the sweet vocalist resumed his own match- 

 less song once more. I ventured then to creep a little nearer, 

 and at length caught sight of him not fifteen yards away. I 

 then found that the pleasure of listening to its melody was 

 greatly enhanced when I could at the same time see the 

 bird, so carried away with rapture does he seem while singing, 

 so many and so beautiful are the gestures and motions with 

 which his notes are accompanied. When I first heard this 

 bird sing I felt convinced that no other feathered songster on 

 the globe could compare with it, for besides the faculty of 

 reproducing the songs of other species, which it possesses in 

 common with the Virginian Mocking-bird, it has a song of its 

 own, which I believe matchless: in this belief I was con- 

 firmed when, shortly after hearing it, I visited England, and 

 found of how much less account than this Patagonian bird, 

 which no poet has ever praised, were the sweetest of the famed 

 melodists of the old world." 



Eoom must be made for another of this wonderful fam- 

 ily, one that on occasion disdains all mimicry and sings 

 a glorious song all his own (Mimus polyglottus, Boie). 



"It is remarkable that in those serenades and midnight solos which 

 have obtained for the Mocking-bird the name of Nightingale, and which 

 he commences with a rapid, stammering prelude, as if he had awaked, 

 frightened ont of sleep, he never sings his song of mimicry ; his music at 

 this time is his own. It is full of variety, with a fine compass, but less 



