JOURNAL OP MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



of the world, is peculiar to the Occi- 

 dent; inhabiting considerable area of 

 North and South America, having been 

 traced from New England to southern 

 Brazil. They are, however, much 

 more numerous in our States south 

 than north of the Delaware. General- 

 ly migratory north of that beautiful 

 river, and resident, to a great extent, 

 to the south thereof. 



Some time ago I noticed a few lines 

 in one of the New England papers 

 seemingly expressing surprise at the 

 fact that a Mocking-bird (one) had 

 been seen as far north as Waterbury, 

 Connecticut, and the lady writer con- 

 cludes: "I have known of the bird, 

 (mocker), nesting near New Haven, 

 but have not heard of its coming as far 

 north as this." i. e... Waterbury, and 

 "I shall watch for its coming next 

 summer." If she does, any where in 

 New England south of the Aroostook, 

 she will find the bird, or, according to 

 Audubon, at least, it ought to be found, 

 mingling, mayhaps in some remote 

 mountain glen, its soulful song with 

 Longfellow's "Sweetly over the village 

 the bell of the Angelus sounds." Even 

 in the land of Evangeline was found 

 this pert, happy bird, so said, at least, 

 in the days of George II, i. e., "The 

 Mocking-bird. The Mimus polyglot- 

 tus, or, as written by Charleton, Ray 

 and Catesby, the Mock-Bird, and by 

 Bonaparte, Mocking-Bird, and passing 

 "critical inspection" by all the worlds 

 best ornithologist, is still, as Audubon 

 says, "accepted king of all Earth's 

 choir," and Willson, "The elfish Mock- 

 er swells:" Every poet who have es- 

 sayed to convey in words the "emo- 

 tions felt" have been about as success- 

 ful as a Master's description of Praxi- 

 tele's Cnidian Venus. They are all, (or 

 may be), grand, delightful and en- 

 chanting, — Enough of this; — "souled 

 emotions" cannot be pictured, cannot 

 be circumferenced with words. 



The tradition of the American indi- 

 genes, wrapped in the beautiful and 

 sea-shell-sounding language of the 

 Wako, as translated by our Charles 

 Winterfield, fails to give a satisfactory 

 negative from the orignal, and that is 

 saying a "good deal." Maurice, Thomp- 

 son, naturalist and State Geologist, 

 (Ind.) author of "By Ways and Bird 

 Notes," portrays very powerfully the 

 "song powers" of this "Kikeewee of 

 the Delaware", in his description of 



its "Sinking Song". The editor of the 

 Journal may be able to get the book 

 for any one wanting it. The author is 

 now dead. I don't recall the publish- 

 er's name. The best of all I have yet 

 seen along the line indicated was writ- 

 ten by Richard Henry Wilde, born at 

 Baltimore in 1789, member of Congress 

 from Georgia, held the professorship 

 of law in the University of Louisiana 

 and died at New Orleans in 1847. 



He was an extensive European 

 traveller, and while abroad, and doubt- 

 less after listening to the nighting- 

 gale, or "philomene of Sussex", wrote 

 these fourteen lines: 



"To The Mocking-Bird." 



"Wing'd mimic of the woods; thou 

 motley fool, 



Who shall thy gay buffoonery describe? 



Thine ever ready notes of ridicule, 



Pursue thy fellows with jest and gibe: 



Wit, sophist, songster, Yorick of thy 

 tribe. 



Thou sportive satirist of Nature's 

 school ; 



To thee the palm or scoffing we ascribe, 



Arch-mocker and mad Abbot of mis- 

 rule ; 



For such thou art by day, — but all 

 night long 



Thou pourest a soft, sweet, pensive, 

 solemn strain, 



As if thou dids't in this thy moonlight 

 song 



Like to the melancholy Jacques com- 

 plain, 



Musing en falsehood, folly, vice and 

 wrong, 



And singing for thy motley coat again." 



I imagine that Mr. Wilde was then 

 longing for his old haunts amid the 

 oleanders of the Mississippi. Be that 

 as it may, he certainly knew America's 

 (ought to be), national bird, which it 

 is deiure. 



The Bonaparte mentioned in the 

 former part of this article was Charles 

 Lucian, Prince of Canino, and a broth- 

 er of the great Napoleon. This Prince 

 Lucian, with the assistance of our fel- 

 low-American, J. J. Audubon, (by birth 

 a Frenchman), compiled and wrote the 

 "Geographical and Comparative Orni- 

 thology of Europe and North Ameri- 

 ca." 



A pretty lengthy title-name for a 

 book, but no more so than that of the 



