MIMICS AMONG BIRDS 211 



piano, all the various noises and sounds of a great 

 city. Need we wonder that many of the greatest 

 thinkers of to-day accord birds a soul as well as a 

 mind! 



When hungry, albatrosses scream without ceas- 

 ing in a strange way which sounds like the bray of 

 an ass, or the neigh of a horse. In speaking of the 

 lyre-bird, Mr. Leycester says : "One of these birds 

 had taken up its quarters within two hundred yards 

 of a sawyer's hut, and he had made himself perfect 

 in all the noises of the sawyer's homestead — ^the 

 crowing of the cocks, the barking and howling of 

 ^the dogs, and even the painful screeching of the 

 sharpening and jSling of the saw." 



Charles Darwin speaks of two very strange mim- 

 ics of Chile. One is called "cheucau," and it lives 

 in the most gloomy and dismal places within the 

 forests. This little red-breasted creature is difficult 

 to find, but when found he is usually hopping 

 around among the dead canes and dead twigs with 

 his tail cocked upward. The natives have many 

 superstitions about him because of his weird and 

 varied cries. There are three distinct calls: one is 

 called "chiduco," and foretells good; another "chi- 

 chido" is an omen of calamity; and a third, "hiu- 

 treu," beware of enemies! These words are sup- 

 posed to represent the sounds, and the natives are in 



