164 MOCKING BIRD. 



feathered songsters of this or perhaps any other country ; 

 and shall receive from us, in this place, all that attention and 

 respect which superior merit is justly entitled to. 



Among the many novelties which the discovery of this 

 part of the western continent first brought into notice, we 

 may reckon that of the mocking bird ; which is not only 

 peculiar to the New World, but inhabits a very considerable 

 extent of both North and South America ; having been traced 

 from the States of New England to Brazil, and also among 

 many of the adjacent islands. They are, however, much 

 more numerous in those States south, than in those north, of 

 the river Delaware ; being generally migratory in the latter, 

 and resident (at least many of them) in the former. A warm 

 climate and low country, not far from the sea, seems most 

 congenial to their nature ; accordingly, we find the species 

 less numerous to the west than east of the great range of the 

 Alleghany, in the same parallels of latitude. In the severe 

 winter of 1808-9, I found these birds, occasionally, from Fre- 

 dericksburg, in Virginia, to the southern parts of Georgia ; 

 becoming still more numerous the farther I advanced to the 

 south. The berries of the red cedar, myrtle, holly, cassine 

 shrub, many species of sinilax, together with gum berries, 

 gall berries, and a profusion of others with which the luxuriant 

 swampy thickets of those regions abound, furnish them with 

 a perpetual feast. Winged insects, also, of which they are 

 very fond, and remarkably expert at catching, abound there 

 even in winter, and are an additional inducement to residency. 

 Though rather a shy bird in the northern States, here he 

 appeared almost half-domesticated, feeding on the cedars, and 

 among the thickets of smilax that lined the roads, while I 

 passed within a few feet; playing around the planter's door, 

 and hopping along the shingles. During the month of 

 February, I sometimes heard a solitary one singing ; but on 

 the 2d of March, in the neighbourhood of Savannah, numbers 

 of them were heard on every hand, vieing in song with each 

 other, and with the brown thrush, making the whole woods 



