SINGING-BIRDS. 171 



He is the Nightingale of the Western World, 

 the many-voiced Mocking-bird {Mimus polyglot- 

 tus). Abundant in almost all situations, from 

 mountain-peak to sea-shore, but especially common, 

 in the orchards and about the homesteads of the 

 lowlands, the voice of the Mocking-bird is heard all 

 through the year, even when other birds are silent ; 

 and all through the day ; and that not by ones, or 

 twos, but by dozens and scores, each straining his 

 melodious throat to outsing his rivals, and pouring 

 forth his full, expressive strains in all the rich variety 

 for which this inimitable songster is so famous. 

 Wilson has truly observed of this delightful bird, 

 that " the ear can listen to his music alone, to which 

 that of all the others seems a mere accompaniment." 

 If all the birds of Jamaica were voiceless, except the 

 Mocking-bird, the woods, and groves, and gardens 

 would still be everywhere vocal with his profuse and 

 rapturous songs. 



In those brilliant nights, when the full-orbed moon 

 shines from the depth of the clear sky with such in- 

 tensity that the eye cannot gaze upon the dazzling 

 brightness of her face, shedding down on plain and 

 sea a flood of soft light sufficient to enable one to 

 read an ordinary book with ease in the open air, — 

 how sweet, how rich, how thrilling, are the bursts of 

 melody that rise from the trees around, the serenades 

 of wakeful Mocking-birds. Nothing to be compared 

 to it have I ever heard in England ; the night-song 

 of a single bird, however fine may be its execution, 

 is no more to be put in competition with such a 

 chorus, than the performance of a single musician, 



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