20 BY-WAYS AND BIRD-NOTES. 



dormer windows on the roof in front, and 

 graduated parapets to hide the gables, a long 

 lean-to veranda and a row of chimneys, a dark, 

 heavy-looking building near the south side of 

 the Way. In a small tree just east of this 

 house used to sing a mocking-bird whose voice 

 was as much above the average of his kind as 

 Patti's voice is above the average woman's 

 voice. If one could get a caged bird to sing 

 as that one did, he might profitably advertise 

 it for concerts. A friend and I sat down 

 across the Way from the house, and, while the 

 gulf breeze poured over us and the bird music 

 filled our ears, got a sketch of the charmingly 

 picturesque old place ; but somehow we could 

 not put in the song of the wonderful mocking- 

 bird. 



Bird-fanciers and bird-buyers may profit by 

 what I now whisper to them, to wit : the best- 

 voiced mocking-birds, without a doubt, are 

 those bred in Middle Florida and Southern 

 Alabama. I have no theory in connection 

 with this statement of a fact ; but if I were 

 going to risk the reputation of our country on 

 the singing of a mocking-bird against a Euro- 

 pean nightingale, I should choose my cham- 

 pion from the hill-country in the neighborhood 

 of Tallahassee, or from the environs of Mo- 

 bile. 



No doubt proper food has much to do with 

 the development of the bird in all its parts, 

 and it may be that the dry, ferule, chocolate- 

 tinted hills that swell up along the Gulf Coast 

 produce just the berries, insects, and other tid- 

 bits needed for the mocking-bird's fullest 

 growth. Then, perhaps, the climate best suits 

 the bird's nature. Be this as it ma)', I have 



