18 



MOCKING-BIRD. 



two, three, or at the most five or six syllables; generally mter- 

 spersed with imitations, and all of them uttered with great em^ 

 phasis and rapidity; and continued, with imdiminished 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, arrest- 

 ing the eye, as his song most irresistably does the ear. He sweeps 

 round with enthusiastic ecstasy — he mounts and descends as his 

 song swells or dies away ; and, as my friend Mr. Bartram has beau- 

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

 as if to recover or recal 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 miles of him ; but whose notes he exactly imitates : even 

 birds themselves are frequently imposed on by this admirable 

 mimick, and are decoyed by the fancied calls of their mates ; or 

 dive, with precipitation, into the depth of thickets, at the scream of 

 what they suppose to be the Sparrow Hawk. 



The Mocking-bird loses little of the power and energy of his 

 song by confinement. In his domesticated state, when he com- 

 mences his career of song, it is impossible to stand by uninterested. 

 He whistles for the dog; Caesar starts up, Avags his tail, and runs 

 to meet his master. He squeaks out like a hurt chicken, and the 

 hen hurries about with hanging wings, and bristled feathers, cluck- 

 ing to protect its injured brood. — The barking of the dog, the mew- 

 ing of the cat, the creaking of a passing wheelbarrow, follow, with 

 great truth and rapidity. He repeats the tune taught him by his 

 master, tho of considerable length, fully and faithfully. He runs 

 over the quiverings of the Canary, and the clear whistlings of the 



* Travels, p. 32. Intrad- 



