THE THRUSH. 51 



do the notes of his brother songsters lose any of their 

 sweetness or brilliancy by such repetition. On the 

 contrary, most of the tones are sweeter and better, 

 than those of the birds which are imitated. 



Sometimes the Mocking Bird deceives and provokes 

 the sportsman by imitating the notes of the game he 

 is in pursuit of, and thus leading him the wrong way. 

 Sometimes also, he brings many other birds around 

 him by counterfeiting the soft tones of their mates, or 

 by imitating the call of the old ones for their young ; 

 and then, perhaps, he will throw them into the most 

 terrible alarm by screaming out like a hawk. 



One who has never heard this bird, after all that 

 can be said, will have but a faint idea of his powers. 

 He will perhaps begin with the song of the robin, then 

 whistle like a quail, then squall like a cat bird, then 

 twitter like a swallow, and so on, running through the 

 notes of every bird in the woods, with surprising truth 

 and rapidity. 



\Vhen tamed, he mocks every sound he hears with 

 equal exactness, and it is often very amusing to wit- 

 ness the effect of this deception. He whistles for the 

 dog ; the dog jumps up, wags his tail, and runs to look 

 for his master. He peeps like a hurt chicken ; and 

 the old hen runs clucking to see who has injured her 

 brood. He mews like a kitten, and mother puss har- 

 kens, and stares to find where the noise comes from, 

 and many other things of this kind he does to per- 

 fection. 



The Mocking Bird is much esteemed by those who 

 are fond of such amusements, and in most of our large 

 cities they are kept for sale by the dealers in birds. 



