138 ENGLISH AND AMERICAN SONG-BIRDS. 



In this country the mocking-bird is the only regu- 

 lar night-singer we have. Other songsters break out 

 occasionally in the middle of the night, but so briefly 

 that it gives one the impression that they sing in 

 their sleep. Thus I have heard the hair-bird, or chip- 

 pie, the kingbird, the oven-bird, and the cuckoo, fit- 

 fully in the dead of the night, like a school-boy laugh- 

 ing in his dreams. 



On the other hand, there are certain aspects in 

 which our songsters appear to advantage. That they 

 surpass the European species in sweetness, tender- 

 ness, and melody I have no doubt, and that our mock- 

 ing-bird, in his native haunts in the South, surpasses 

 any bird in the world in fluency, variety, and execu- 

 tion is highly probable. That the total effect of his 

 strain may be less winning and persuasive than the 

 nocturne of the nightingale, is the only question in 

 my mind about the relative merits of the two song- 

 sters. Bring our birds together as they are brought 

 together in England, let all our shy wood-birds like 

 the hermit thrush, the veery, the winter wren, the 

 wood wagtail, the water wagtail, the many warblers, 

 the greenlet, the solitary vireo, etc. become birds 

 of the groves and orchards, and there would be a 

 burst of song indeed. 



Bates, the naturalist of the Amazons, speaks of a 

 little thrush he used to hear in his rambles, that 

 showed the American quality to which I have re- 

 ferred. " It is a much smaller and plainer-colored 

 bird," he says, " than our [the English] thrush, and 



