THE TOOTp-BILLED PEROHERS. 251 



Bot unlike those of the thrush, especially in its zeal for unearthing 

 the cockchaflFer-grubs, and possibly for eating cherries when they 

 are ripe. Its nest is built usually at the foot of a hedge, frequently 

 in the very centre of a holly bush, safe from most enemies but 

 weasels, etc. 



The Mocking Bird, or Polyglot Thrush, is a native of 

 most parts of America. This wonderful bird stands pre-eminent 

 in powers of song. Not only are its natural notes bold and 

 spirited, but it has the faculty of imitating with deceptive fidelity 

 every sound it hears. To its flexible organs, the harsh setting of 

 a saw, the song of a nightingale, 

 the creaking of a wheel, the whis- 

 tled tune of a passer-by, the full 

 and mellow notes of the thrush, 

 the barking of a dog, the crowing 

 of a cock, and the savage scream 

 of the bald eagle, are each equally 

 easy of execution, and follow one „ , , „. ^ 



•' ' - Mocking Biid. 



another with such marvellous 



rapidity that few can believe that the insignificant brown bird 

 before them is the sole author of these varied sounds. The Vir- 

 ginian nightingale and the canary hear their exquisite modulations 

 performed with such superior execution, that the vanquished 

 songsters are silent from mere mortification, while the triumphant 

 Mocking-bird only redoubles his efibrts. Wilson, whose animated 

 description of this bird has never been surpassed, says : " His ex- 

 panded wings and tail glistening with white, and the buoyant 

 gaiety of his action arresting the eye, as his song does most irre- 

 sistibly the ear, he sweeps round with enthusiastic ecstacy, and 

 mounts and descends as his song swells or dies away. He often 

 deceives the sportsman, and sends him in search of birds that are 

 not perhaps within miles of him, but whose notes he exactly imi- 

 tates : even birds themselves are frequently imposed upon by this 

 admirable mimic, and are decoyed by the fancied calls of their 

 mates, or dive with precipitation into the depth of thickets at tho 

 scream of what they suppose to be the sparrow-hawk" 



