1 68 MOCKING BIRD. 



listening and laying up lessons from almost every species of 

 the feathered creation within his hearing, are really surpris- 

 ing, 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 dewy 

 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 consist 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 

 expanded wings and tail glistening with white, and the 

 buoyant gaiety of his action arresting the eye, as his song 

 most irresistibly does the ear, he sweeps round with enthusi- 

 astic ecstasy — he mounts and descends as his song swells or 

 dies away ; and, as my friend Mr Bartram has beautifully 

 expressed it, " He bounds aloft with the celerity of an arrow, 

 as if to recover or recall his very soul, expired in the last 

 elevated strain." * While thus exerting himself, a bystander 

 destitute of sight would suppose that the whole feathered 

 tribes had assembled together on a trial of skill, each 

 striving to produce his utmost effect ; so perfect are his 

 imitations. He many times deceives the sportsman, and 

 sends him in search of birds that perhaps are not within 

 * Travels, p. 32, Introd. 



