1^0 MOCKING BIRD. 



his tail, and throws himself around the cage in all the ecstasy 

 of enthusiasm, seeming not only to sing, but to dance, keeping 

 time to the measure of his own music. Both in his native 

 and domesticated state, during the solemn stillness of night, 

 as soon as the moon rises in silent majesty, he begins his 

 delightful solo, and serenades us the livelong night with a 

 full display of his vocal powers, making the whole neighbour- 

 hood ring with his inimitable medley.* 



Were it not to seem invidious in the eyes of foreigners, I 

 might in this place, make a comparative statement between 

 the powers of the mocking bird and the only bird, I believe, 

 in the world, worthy of being compared with him, — the 

 European nightingale. This, however, I am unable to do 

 from my own observation, having never myself heard the song 

 of the latter ; and, even if I had, perhaps something might be 

 laid to the score of partiality, which, as a faithful biographer, 

 I am anxious to avoid. I shall, therefore, present the reader 

 with the opinion of a distinguished English naturalist and 

 curious observer on this subject, the Honourable Dairies 

 Barrington, who, at the time he made the communication, 

 was Vice-president of the Royal Society, to which it was 

 addressed.f 



"It may not be improper here," says this gentleman, "to 



* The hunters in the southern States, when setting out upon an 

 excursion by night, as soon as they hear the mocking bird begin to 

 sing, know that the moon is rising. 



A certain anonymous author, speaking of the mocking birds in the 

 island of Jamaica, and their practice of singing by moonlight, thus 

 gravely philosophises, and attempts to account for the habit. " It is 

 not certain," says he, " whether they are kept so wakeful by the clear- 

 ness of the light, or by any extraordinary attention and vigilance, 

 at such times, for the protection of their nursery from the piratical 

 assaults of the owl and the night hawk. It is possible that fear may 

 operate upon them, much in the same manner as it has been observed to 

 affect some cowardly persons, who whistle stoutly in a lonesome place, 

 while their mind is agitated with the terror of thieves or hobgoblins." 

 — History of Jamaica, vol. iii. p. 894, 4to. 



t Philosophical Transactions, vol. lxii. part ii. p. 284. 



