UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 331 



well proportioned, and even handsome. The ease, elegance, and rapi- 

 dity of his movements, the animation of his eye, and the intelligence 

 he displays in listening to, and laying up lessons from, almost every 

 species of the feathered creation within his hearing, are really sur- 

 prising, and mark the peculiarity of his genius. To these qualities 

 we may add that of a voice full, strong and musical, and capable of 

 almost every modulation, from the clear mellow tones of the Wood 

 Thrush, to the savage scream of the Bald Eagle. In measure and 

 accent he faithfully follows his originals. In force and sweetness of 

 expression, he greatly improves upon them. In his native groves, 

 mounted on the top of a tall bush or half grown tree, in the dawn of 

 the morning, while the woods are already vocal with a multitude of 

 warblers, his admirable song rises pre-eminent over every competitor. 

 The ear can listen to his music alone, to which that of all the others 

 seems a mere accompaniment. Neither is this strain altogether 

 imitative. His own native notes, which are easily distinguishable 

 by such as are well acquainted with those of our various song birds, 

 are bold and full, and varied seemingly beyond all limits. They con- 

 sist of short expressions of two, three, or at the most five or six 

 syllables ; generally interspersed with imitations, and all of them 

 uttered with great emphasis and rapidity ; and continued, with undi- 

 minished ardour, for half an hour, or an hour, at a time. His ex- 

 panded wings and tail, glistening with white, and the buoyant gaiety 

 of his action, arresting the eye, as his song most irresistably does the 

 ear. 



The native notes of the Mocking-bird have considerable resem- 

 blance to those of the Brown Thrush or Thrasher, but may easily be 

 distinguished by their greater rapidity, sweetness, energy of expres- 

 sion and variety. Both, however, have in many parts of the United 

 States, particularly in those to the south, obtained the name of Mock- 

 ing-bird. The Brown Thrush, from its inferiority of song, being call- 

 ed the French, and the other the English Mocking-bird. A mode 

 of expression probably originating in the prejudices of our forefathers, 

 with whom every thing French was inferior to every thing English. 



Wood Thrush or Wood Robin. This sweet and solitary songster 

 inhabits the whole of North America from Hudson's Bay to the penin- 

 sula of Florida. He arrives in Pennsylvania about the twentieth of 

 April, and returns to the south about the beginning of October. As 

 soon as he arrives he announces his presence in the woods. With 

 the dawn of the succeeding morning, mounting to the top of some 

 tall tree that rises from a low thick-shaded part of the woods, he 

 pipes his few but clear and musical notes in a kind of ecstasy ; the 

 prelude or symphony to which strongly resembles the double-tongue- 

 ing of a German flute, and sometimes the tinkling of a small bell, 

 The whole song consists of five or six parts, the last note of each of 

 which is in such a tone as to leave the conclusion evidently suspend- 

 ed ; the finale is finely managed, and with such charming effect as to 

 sooth and tranquillize the mind, and to seem sweeter and mellower 

 at each successive repetition. Rival songsters, of the same species, 

 challenge each other from different parts of the wood, seeming to 

 vie for softer tones and more exquisite responses. During the burn- 

 ing heat of the day, they are comparatively mute ; but in the even- 

 ing the same melody is renewed, and continued long after sunset. 

 Even in dark wet and gloomy weather, when scarce a single chirp 

 13 heard from any other bird, the clear notes of the Wood Thrush 



