THE MOCKING-BIRD. 373 



When day resigns to night his reign, 

 And stillness stretches o'er the plain, 

 Then, Bird of Melody ! thy note 

 Doth on the gales of ether float. 

 That note harmonious, truly thine, 

 Approaches strains almost divine : 

 When lifts the moon her lamp on high, 

 And dashes light o'er earth and sky, 

 Its warbling echoes onward roll, 

 And lap in feeling's bliss the soul. 



Bird of Mockery ! Bird of Song ! 



To thee all pleasing notes belong. ( 41 ) 



( 4I ) Order, Passeres, (Linn.) Mocking-Bird. 



The Turdus Polyglottus, (Linn.) Mocking-Bird, or Mimic- 

 Thrush, belongs to the numerous genus Turdus described in 

 note (45) of the first Part. Its colour is above dusky-ash, beneath 

 pale-ash; primary quill feathers white on the outer half; nine and 

 a half inches long; female nearly like the male ; feeds on berries, 

 fruits, and insects ; eggs four or five, cinereous blue, spotted 

 with brown ; has two broods in a year ; found in America, 

 from the States of New England to Brazil, and in many of the 

 adjacent islands ; more numerous in those states south of the 

 Delaware ; generally migratory in the latter and resident in the 

 former ; a warm climate and low country not far from the sea are 

 most congenial to it; sings occasionally as early as February ; builds 

 in Georgia in April, in Pennsylvania in May, and in New York 

 and the New England States still later ; prefers a thorn bush, an 

 impenetrable thicket, an orange tree, a cedar or a holly bush ; 

 sometimes a pear or apple tree, often a short distance from a 

 dwelling-house ; time of incubation fourteen days, during which 

 the male will attack both cats and snakes with great courage ; 



