MOCKING-BIRD. 



19 



Virginia Nightingale, or Red-bird, with such superior execution 

 and effect, that the mortified songsters feel their own inferiority^ 

 and become altogether silent; while he seems to triumph in their 

 defeat by redoubling his exertions. 



This excessive fondness for variety^ however, in the opinion 

 of some, injures his song. His elevated imitations of the Brown 

 Thrush are frequently interrupted by the crowing of cocks ; and 

 the warblings of the Blue-bird, which he exquisitely manages, are 

 mingled with the screaming of swallows, or the cackling of hens ; 

 amidst the simple melody of the Robin we are suddenly surprised 

 by the shrill reiterations of the Whippoorwill ; while the notes of 

 the Killdeer, Blue Jay, Martin, Baltimore, and twenty others, suc- 

 ceed, with such imposing reality, that we look round for the origi- 

 nals, and discover, with astonishment, that the sole performer in 

 this singular concert is the admirable bird now before us. During 

 this exhibition of his powers, he spreads his wings, expands his 

 tail, and throws himself around the cage in all the ecstasy of en-* 

 thusiasm, seeming not only to sing, but to dance, keeping time to 

 the measure of his own music. Both in his native and domesti-^ 

 cated statCj during the solemn stillness of night, as soon as the 

 moon rises in silent majesty, he begins his delightful solo; and 

 serenades us the live long night with a full display of his vocal 

 powers, making the whole neighbourhood ring with his inimitable 

 medley.^ 



* The hunters in the southern states, when setting out on 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 moonhght, thus gravely philosophizes, and attempts to ac- 

 count for the habit. " It is not certain,'' says he, " whether they are kept so wakeful by the 

 clearness 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 thaty^ar may operate upon them, much in the same manner as it has been observed 

 ^' to affect some cowardly persons, who whistle stoudy in a lonesome place, while their mind 

 " is agitated with the terror of thieves or hobgoblins." Hist, of Jam. v. Ill, p. 894, quarto. 



