96 



thrushes the sexes are similar. L. 9^ ; W. 4^ ; T. 5. Often the common shrike 

 is mistaken for this bird; the colors and flight are quite similar, but the short- 

 hooked bill of the butcher bird is distinctive at a glance. 



A very rare summer resident in Indiana. Dr. Hoy records six nests from the 

 vicinity of Racine, Wisconsin. The bird is a world-renowned songster — the night- 

 ingale of America. It is a common bird in towns South, as free and familiar as 

 the robin is with us, and in a state of freedom has a song of its own infinitely rich 

 and various, and even more notable than its wonderful power of mimicry ; " when 

 its love passion is upon it the serious and even grand side of its character comes 

 out." 



Both sides of its nature — the garrulous buffoon and serious lover — are portrayed 

 in Wilde's exquisite sonnet : 



TO THE MOCKING-BIRD. 



Winged mimic of the woods ! thou motley fool, 



Who shall thy gay buffoonery describe ? 

 Thine ever-ready notes of ridicule 



Pursue thy fellows stlU with jest and gibe. 

 Wit — sophist — songster — Garrick of thy tribe, 



Thou sportive satirist of Nature's school, 

 To thee the palm of scoffing we ascribe. 



Arch scoffer, and mad Abbot of Misrule! 

 For such thou art by day — but all night long 



Thou pour'st a soft, sweet, pensive, solemn strain, 

 As if thou did'st iu this, thy moonlight song, 



Like to the melancholy Jacques, complain, 

 Musing on falsehood, violence aud wrong, 



And sighing for thy motley coat again. 



Mr. Edward Palmer, of Indianapolis, reports a mocking-bird nesting near the 

 city in 1876. 



GALEOSCOPTES. Cabanis. Cat-birds. 



9. G. CAROLINENSIS. (L.) Cab. Cat-bird. Dark slate; crown and tail 

 black; crissum brownish chestnut. L. 8^; W. 3^; T. 4. Well-known summer 

 resident. Nests on the main streets of Indianapolis. Comes April last, and leaves 

 in September. 



FAMILY II. SAXICOLID^. 



{The Bluebirds.) 



Like the thrushes, only with a longer and more pointed wing, reaching, when 

 folded, beyond the middle of the short tail. Tarsus "booted;" first primary 

 spurious; 12 genera and a hundred species, mostly old-world birds. 3 in U. S. ; 

 ours, and two Western species. 



SIALIA. Swainson. Bluebirds. 



10. S. SIALIS (L.) Common bhiebird. Bright blue above. "The bluebird car- 

 ries the sky on his back." (Thoreau.) The throat and breast reddish brown ; female 



