70 Bird - Lore 



hearing them. How is it here ? Does any one pretend that bird song 

 is common in the suburbs of our cities ? Do Robins and Catbirds, 

 our most plentiful singing birds, often treat us to a song as we sit 

 on the piazza of our semi-detached cottage, or as we walk adown 

 the tree-lined streets?" 



It is not stated in the article from which the above is quoted 

 where the writer's observations in this country were made except 

 that a ''Pennsylvania wood" is incidentally referred to. It is diffi- 

 cult to believe, however, that he can have had much, if any, experi- 

 ence with more favored portions of our country, for his allegation 

 certainly will not hold good for a large number of localities both 

 east and west of the Alleghanies, however applicable it may be to 

 the immediate vicinity of our larger eastern cities. His comparison 

 is also unfair in that, while questioning the existence in America of 

 any "peer of the Nightingale," he neglected to inquire where, in 

 England — or the rest of Europe, for that matter — can be found 

 even an approach to our Mockingbird,* although since it is tacitly 

 granted that in the two countries the quality of bird song "is equal," 

 we can afford to pass this by. 



When we consider the unquestionable fact that in the eastern 

 United States the number of species of song-birds is about twice as 

 great as that belonging to the entire British Islands, there must, if 

 the statement be true, be some reason why bird songs are so much 

 more often heard there than here. The explanation seems to me 

 very simple, three very different conditions which actually exist in 

 the two countries being alone sufficient to produce the alleged result. 

 These are : (i) the far more densely populated area of England, 

 rendering it almost impossible for a bird to sing without being 

 heard ; (2) the greater protection there afforded song-birds in thickly 

 settled districts; and (3) the conspicuous differences of climate, the 

 moist and cool summers of England, permitting birds to be abroad 

 and tuneful throughout the day, while our dry and scorching summer 



*The special merit of the Moclcingbird's song is popularly supposed to consist in its imitative 

 character, but this is far from being true. The Mockingbird is not so confirmed an imitator as he 

 is given credit (or discredit) for ; and many individuals, and the very best songsters, of the species 

 rarely, if ever, imitate. Their own notes are so infinitely varied that persons not sufficiently familiar 

 with birds' notes erroneously suppose many of them to be imitations. 



A Patagonian species of Mockingbird {Mimus triurus) may, or may not, be superior to ours as 

 a songster. I very much doubt if its song excels that of the best performers among our species. 

 This is what an Englishman has to say regarding it : 



"When I first heard this bird sing I felt convinced that no other feathered songster on the globe 

 could compare with it ; for, besides the faculty of reproducing the songs of other species, which it 

 possesses in common with the Virginia Mockingbird, it has a song of its own which I believed to be 

 matchless ; and in this belief I was confirmed when shortly after hearing it I visited England and 

 found of how much less account than this Patagonian bird, which no poet has ever praised, were 

 the sweetest of the famed melodists of the Old World." (W. H. Hudson, Argentine Ornithology, 

 Vol. I, p. 9.) 



