THE SINGING BIRDS AND THEIR SONGS. 119 



who wrote, not from his own observations, but from the 

 accounts of travellers, declared the birds of America to 

 be unmusical. This was the general opinion of Euro- 

 peans, until Alexander Wilson published his work on 

 the Birds of the United. States. Wilson was a Scotch- 

 man, and was familiar with the notes of the European 

 warblers, having been from his early youth an ardent 

 lover of nature and a curious observer of the habits of 

 birds. He pronounced the birds of this continent to be 

 superior to those of Europe in their powers of song. 

 Other European naturalists have declared in favor of 

 their own birds. Audubon subscribes to the opinion of 

 Wilson ; but I am inclined to believe that both of these 

 naturalists were misled by their own enthusiasm, and 

 by their attachment to the American birds with whom 

 they had been so long familiar. I doubt whether we 

 have a single warbler whose native notes equal those of 

 the nightingale, or of either the skylark or the woodlark 

 of Europe. At the same time, I am prepared to say 

 that I believe no bird on the face of the earth, can be 

 found, any part of whose song is equal in mellowness, 

 plaintiveness, and in what is generally understood as 

 expression, to the five strains, never varied and yet 

 never tiresome, of the common, little, olive-brown wood- 

 thrush. 



The powers of the American mocking-bird are un- 

 questionably overrated. His native notes do not differ 

 materially from those of the ferruginous thrush ; but he 

 has more power and compass than the latter, and is a 

 more inveterate singer. The mocking-bird has the de- 

 fect of all the American thrushes, except the wood- 

 thrush, which is a want of continuity in their song. 

 Their different strains are separated by a pause which 

 greatly injures their effect. Hence they appear to be 



