58 ORGANS OF VOICE. 



shrillness of its note. It was supposed that it must have 

 been bred near the spot, and learned the cry from hearing 

 the cocks.* 



The Goat-sucker, Night-jar, Hawkmoth, (or, as it is 

 better known in many places, the Wheel-bird, owing to its 

 making a sound much resembling a spinning-wheel,) is 

 another bird not uncommon in this country during the 

 summer months, frequenting heaths and commons. The best 

 time to hear it is about dusk, when it may be cautiously ap- 

 proached, and discovered sitting with its head downwards, 

 repeating, for a considerable time, its rough jarring cry. 



In foreign countries, however, there are birds possessing a 

 far greater power of imitation. We need scarcely mention 

 the Mocking-bird of North America at the head of the list; 

 so widely spread over the world is its character, not only 

 having the power of imitating the note of every bird it hears, 

 but also that of animals, and other sounds. It can bark like 

 a dog, mew like a cat; then all of a sudden make the exact 

 noise of a trundling wheelbarrow; sometimes it will call the 

 hens together by screaming like a wounded chicken; or 

 entice the house-dog from the fire-side by whistling for it in 

 its master's well-known summons. 



There is a species of Crow in India, (Corvus leucotophus^) 

 which assembles in flocks of about twenty or thirty, in the 

 recesses of forests, and whose note so exactly resembles the 

 human voice in loud laughing, that a person ignorant of the 

 real cause would fancy that a very merry party were close 

 at hand. 



There is also a species of Skylark, in India, whose powers 

 of imitation are described as astonishing. One of these birds 

 had so completely learned the wailing cry of a Kite soaring 

 in the air, that although the Lark's cage was in a room, 

 and within a few feet of the listener, he could scarcely per- 

 suade himself that the cry he heard did not, in reality, 

 proceed from a distant Kite. They are taught by being 

 carried daily to the fields and groves, in close-covered cages, 



* See Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. iv., p. 343. 



