HAUNTS OF THE MOCKING-BIRD. 15 



has much to do with this. But the mocking- 

 bird, the brown-thrush, and the cat-bird are 

 notable exceptions to the rule. Nature has 

 endowed them with an instinctive impulse 

 toward a cultivation of their vocal powers, as 

 well as with voices capable of wonderful 

 achievements. 



A mocking-bird reared in captivity becomes 

 much more a mere mimic than the wild bird, 

 and yet, so strong is the hereditary tendency, 

 the caged bird will perfectly sound the notes 

 of a grossbeak or a blue-jay without ever hav- 

 ing heard them. I have heard a mocking-bird, 

 reared in a cage in Indiana, utter with singu- 

 lar accuracy the cry of the Southern wood- 

 pecker (Picus querulus), a bird I have never 

 seen north of the Cumberland Mountains. 



Many little incidents noted in the woods 

 and in the orchards haunted by the mocking- 

 bird have led me to conclude that a genuine 

 sense of the importance of singing well in- 

 spires some of its most remarkable efforts. 

 One morning in March, 1881, I looked out of 

 a window in the old City Hotel at Talla- 

 hassee, and witne'ssed a pitched battle of song 

 between a brown-thrush and a mocking-bird. 

 In the grounds about the Capitol building 

 across the street stood some venerable oak 

 trees just beginning to leave out. The birds 

 had each chosen a perch on the highest prac- 

 ticable point of a tree. They were not more 

 than fifty feet apart, and with swelling throats 

 were evidently vying fiercely with each other. 

 This gave me the best possible opportunity of 

 comparing their styles and methods of expres- 

 sion. To my ear the brown-thrush in the wild 

 state is a sweeter singer than any caged mock- 



