74 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



always went straight to the same bush, because I 

 thought the bird that used it as his singing-place 

 appeared less shy than the others. One day I spent 

 a long time listening to this favourite, delightedly 

 watching him, perched on a low twig on a level with 

 my sight and not more than five yards from me, 

 his body perfectly motionless, but the head and wide- 

 open beak jerked from side to side in a measured 

 mechanical way. I had a side view of the bird, but 

 every three seconds the head would be jerked towards 

 me, showing the bright yellow colour of the open 

 mouth. The reeling would last about three minutes, 

 then the bird would unbend or unstiffen and take 

 a few hops about the bush, then stiffen and begin 

 again. While thus gating and listening I by chance 

 met with an experience of that rare kind which 

 invariably strikes the observer of birds as strange 

 and almost incredible — an example of the most 

 perfect mimicry in a species which has its own 

 distinctive song and is not a mimic except once in 

 a while and as it were by chance. The marsh warbler 

 is our perfect mocking-bird, our one professional 

 mimic, while the starling in comparison is but an 

 amateur. We all know the starhng's ever-varying 

 performance in which he attempts a hundred things 

 and occasionally succeeds ; but even the starling 

 sometimes affects us with a mild astonishment, and 

 I will here give one instance. 



