310 NETHER LOCHABER. 



so correctly and miiiutely conversant with the language of birds as 

 Mackenzie is. By the language of birds, we do not mean their 

 song, for song is no more the ordinary speech of birds, though 

 most people think it is, than it is the ordinary speech of men. 

 Mackenzie, it is true, can imitate the songs of our diflferent species 

 of warblers with great taste and exactness, but when we say that 

 he is conversant with the language of birds, we mean not their song, 

 but their little notes, abrupt chirpings, and faint whisperings, indica- 

 tive to the initiated of the particular thought or motif at the moment 

 predominant in the feathered breast, whether love or terror, or 

 mere apprehension of danger, or envy, or rivalry, or combativeness, 

 or notes of warning, or call of invitation to its kind — aU these, and 

 for every separate species, Mackenzie imitates with such consum- 

 mate skill, exactness, and dexterity, that he not only deceives an 

 ordinary listener when off his guard — he has more than once 

 deceived iis, though familiar with birds and bird-notes all our life 

 — but he deceives the very birds themselves, as we have often 

 witnessed with no little admiration and delight. That much of 

 this imitatory work is done ventriloquistically renders it all the 

 more effective, as well as more difficult of attainment by others of 

 the fraternity ambitious of catching and cultivating on their own 

 behalf so desirable a gift. This knowledge of bird language is, 

 of course, of great value to him as a bird-catcher, and accounts for 

 his success at seasons seemingly the most inopportune, and in 

 localities the most unlikely, that an ordinary bird-catcher would 

 probably search in vain for a single specimen of goldfiiach or aber- 

 devine, linnet or redpole, or anything else in the shape of a valuable 

 song-bird. In passing and repassing our place, this wonderful 

 bird-man, as our servant girl styles him, always calls with such bird 

 news and rare specimens as he thinks most likely to interest us. 

 The other day he came in a state of great excitement to inform us 

 that just as he had got several siskins on his limed twigs, a bird 



