ORDER PASSERES. 539 



has mentioned these birds, informs us, that they sometimes ap- 

 pear in the plains of Bologna, where the fowlers call them sea- 

 starlings. They perch on dunghills, grow very fat, and their 

 flesh is good eating. They have been sometimes seen in this 

 country. 



The mocking-thrush, properly so called, derives its name 

 from the peculiar talent which it possesses of imitating the 

 cries and a part of the song of other birds ; but it does not 

 give a caricatured imitation of those foreign sounds its denomi- 

 nation would appear to indicate ; on the contrary, if it imitates 

 it is only to embellish. The cries and half-phrases with which 

 it enriches its own naturally varied song, have occasioned the 

 aborigines of Mexico to give it a name far more appropriate 

 and more justly applicable, that of Cencontlatolli, which means 

 four hundred languages. 



This bird not only sings with taste, and without monotony, 

 but also with action and animation. It is, perhaps, one of the 

 first of singing birds ; but to place it above the nightingale, 

 with Fernandez, Nieremberg, and others, can only be done by 

 those who have never heard, or who have entirely forgotten 

 the song of that delightful bird. The voice of the mocking- 

 thrush is more loud and powerful, but by no means so agree- 

 able within a certain distance. Its song has httle of the 

 softness, delicacy, and plaintive tenderness that so peculiarly 

 characterize the nightingale during the season of love. 



As there is no bird among the Americans at all to be com- 

 pared to the mocking-bird, it is not astonishing that they 

 should have exalted it into so extraordinary a character, and 

 raised it above all other birds. They have, however, exagge- 

 rated its talents, in stating that it can imitate completely, and in 

 all their parts, the song of other birds, the cries of different 

 quadrupeds, the crying of infants, the laughter of a young 

 girl, and in being able to repeat entire airs on the same key in 

 which it has heard them. It does not possess the imitative 

 talent to this degree, even in captivity. The mewing of 



