MOCKING-BIRD.— MimMspo%?o««s. 



irresistibly does tlie ear, he sweeps round with enthusiastic ecstasy, as he mounts or 

 descends as his song swells or dies away ; and as my friend Mr. Bartram has beautifully 

 expressed it, ' He bounds aloft with the celerity of an arrow, as if to recover or recall his 

 very soul, expired in the last elevated strain. 



While thus exerting himself, a bystander destitute of sight would sujDpose that the 

 whole feathered tribe had assembled together on a trial of skill, each striving to produce 

 his utmost effect, so perfect are his imitations. He many times deceives the sportsman, 

 and sends him in search of birds that are perhaps not within miles of him, but whose 

 notes he exactly imitates. Even birds themselves are imposed upon by this admirable 

 mimic, and are decoyed by the fancied calls of their mates, or dive with precipitation into 

 the depths of thickets at the scream of what they suppose to be the sparrow hawk." 



It is a very remarkable circumstance that one single bird always assumes the mastery 

 in each district, and that whenever he begins to sing, the others cease from their perform- 

 ances, and retire to a distance from the spot where the master bird has taken his stand, 

 so that their voices are only heard as if in distant echoes to his nobler strains. The bird 

 can easily be tamed, and when it turns out to be a good songster, is a most valuable bird, 

 twenty-five pounds having been offered and refused for a good specimen. I knew of one 

 case where a young Mocking-bird was brought over to England, and lived in the family 

 lOr nearly two years, displaying its imitative talents in a very wonderful manner. It 

 thrived well, and died from the effect of an accident, its legs having been crushed in a 

 doorway. 



The male bird can be distinguished from the female by the breadth and pure tint of 

 the white band on the wings. In the adult bird, the white colour ought to spread over 

 all the primary feathers, extending away below the white coverts ; the dark colour of the 

 back is also of a more blackish hue. 



The nest of this bird is usually placed in some thick bush, and is in general very 

 carefully concealed. Sometimes, however, when the bird builds in localities where it knows 

 that it will be protected from human interference, it is quite indifferent about the conceal- 

 ment of its home, and trusts to its own prowess for the defence of its mate and young. 

 ^Vhen engaged in the business of incubation, the Mocking-bird suffers no foe to approach 



