204 Bird - Lore 



escape for the young, but did the cat get the mother ? I asked myself that ques- 

 tion twenty times the next day. 



When I arose next morning the male was singing gloriously from the top- 

 most twig of the spruce pine by the garden. I had never heard him sing so 

 sweetly. The Mockingbird is a musical genius the brilliancy of whose perform- 

 ance is beyond my power of description. The most obvious charms of his song, 

 however, are the infinite variety and range of his round, full, distinct notes, 

 and the rapidity and enthusiasm with which he trills his marvelous medley, 

 composed of his own native notes, intermingled with the songs of all the other 

 birds of his acquaintance. Four observations of his song, taken at different times, 

 will convey some idea of his performance: (i) In ten minutes he changed his 

 song of from one to four notes, forty-six times, and repeated each from one to 

 nine times — on an average 3.41 times. (2) In three minutes he changed his 

 song twenty-eight times, repeated each from one to nine times — average four 

 times. (3) In one minute he changed thirteen times, repeated from one to nine 

 times — average 6.3 times. (4) In ten minutes he changed 137 times, repeated 

 from one to twelve times — average 3.18 times. His song, however, is little more 

 remarkable than the grace and elegance of his form and movements. His wings 

 rest lightly against his person, but do not hang, as the Catbird's sometimes 

 do; his tail swings loose, but never droops. A light gust of wind will sometimes 

 carry wings and tail above his body, but he readjusts them with perfect grace. 

 His buoyancy is quite astonishing. He is so light and airy that he appears an 

 ethereal being — the spirit of song. When he mounts aloft in the ecstacy of his 

 song, there is no perceptible movement in the small twig on which he stood; 

 he never uses it as a spring-board, like the Blue Jay, for instance, who shakes 

 the whole tree-top when he leaves. He mounts with his wings, makes graceful 

 convolutions in his song-flight, returns to the place he left, poises himself in the 

 air, reaches down his feet and takes hold of the slender twig without the slight- 

 est jar. He never misses his hold, nor loses his balance. I have seen him bound 

 aloft, float backward, downward, and inward to his original perch, describing 

 a complete vertical circle, without changing the direction of his body. He con- 

 tinued his song at intervals all day, flitting restlessly from place to place, 

 greatly enlarging his range, but never going near the desolated nest. 



His mate turned up on the 27th, and entered energetically on the building 

 of a new nest. She had suffered no other physical damage from the night's 

 adventure than a broken feather — one of the beautiful white exterior feathers 

 of the tail. 



Concluding, I summarize the labors of our Mockingbirds for the man of 



records: 



Building June 6-7 2 days 



Laying June 8-1 1 4 days 



Incubating June 12-21 10 days 



Care of young June 22-26 5 days 



Mating for new brood June 27 1 day 



Building June 28-29 2 days , 



