114 POPULAR HISTORY OF BIRDS. 
most irresistibly does the ear, he sweeps round with enthu- 
siastic ecstasy — he mounts and descends as his song swells or 
dies away. . . . While thus exerting himself, a bystander 
destitute of sight would suppose that the whole feathered 
tribes had assembled together on a trial of skilly each striving 
to produce its utmost effect^ so perfect are his imitations'^."'^ 
Our excellent friend^ Mr. Gosse, was no less struck with 
the song of this master musician in Jamaica. He tells 
ust that the bird in that island is abundant in almost all 
situations, from mountain-peak to sea-shore^ but especially 
common in the orchards and about the homesteads of the 
lowdands."'^ Its voice is heard through the whole year, even 
when other birds are silent ; and that not by ones or twos, 
but by dozens and scores, each straining his melodious throat 
to outsing his rivals, and pouring forth his full expressive 
strains in all the rich variety for which this inimitable song- 
ster is so famous. ... If all the birds of Jamaica were 
voiceless^ except the mocking-bird, the woods, and groves, 
and gardens would still be everywhere vocal wath his profuse 
and rapturous song. 
In those brilliant nights, when the full-orbed moon 
* American Ornithology, vol. ii. p. 92. 
f A Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica, by Philip Henry Gosse, p. 171. 
