WHITE-BANDED MOCKING-BIRD 13 
tail it looked like a Tyrant of the Tznioptera group. 
It was extremely shy, had a swift, easy, powerful 
flight, and when approached would rise up high in 
the air and soar away to a great distance. In February 
it disappeared from the Rio Negro and did not 
return till the following October, after the arrival of 
all the other migrants. It was then that I had the 
rare good fortune to hear it sing, and I shall never 
forget the sensation I experienced when listening to 
its matchless melody. 
While walking through a chamar-wood one bright 
morning, my attention was suddenly arrested by notes 
issuing from a thicket close by, to which I listened in 
delighted astonishment, so vastly superior in melody, 
strength, and variety did they seem to all other bird- 
music. That it was the song of a Mimus did not occur 
to me; for while the music came in a continuous 
stream, until I marvelled that the throat of any bird 
could sustain so powerful and varied a song for so 
long a time, it was never once degraded by the harsh 
cries, fantastical flights, and squealing buffooneries 
so frequently introduced by the Calandria, but every 
note was in harmony and uttered with a rapidity and 
joyous abandon no other bird is capable of, except, 
perhaps, the Skylark ; while the purity of the sounds 
gave to the whole performance something of the 
ethereal rapturous character of the Lark’s song when 
it comes to the listener from a great height in the air. 
Presently this flow of exquisite unfamiliar music 
ceased, while I still remained standing amongst the 
trees, not daring to move for fear of scaring away 
