THE MOCKING-BIRD. 
69 
the full-orbed moon shines from the depth of the clear sky with such 
intensity that the eye cannot gaze upon the dazzling brightness of her 
face, shedding down on plain and sea a flood of soft light, how sweet, 
how rich, how thrilling are the bursts of melody that rise from the 
trees around, the serenades of wakeful mocking-birds ! " 
It is as an imitator that he excels. He is no vulgar copyist, 
however; but a true artist, reproducing the expression as well as 
the mechanical peculiarities of the birds he imitates and surpasses. 
He represents the warble of the thrush, and the quiverings of the 
canary, and the flute-like melody of the reed-bird, with such superior 
execution and eflfect as to mortify these astonished songsters into 
silence. He is an orchestra in himself ; all the feathered musicians of 
the forest seem to have transferred their gifts to him. 
His various taste and imitative skill, in the opinion of some 
authorities, injure his song. However this may be, they never fail to 
move the traveller's wonder and delight. His " personations " of the 
brown thrush are succeeded by imitations of Chanticleer which would 
convulse a Boxing-Night audience ; and he mingles the warblings of 
tlie bluebird with the cacklinor of hens or the screamincf of swallows. 
o o 
A moment, and our ears are filled with the simple melody of the 
robin. Yet another moment, and we are surprised by the shrill 
monoton}^ of the whip-poor-will ; to which succeed in turn, and with 
admirable fidelity, the notes of the kill-deer, the blue jay, the martin, 
the Baltimore oriole, the woodlark, the chafiinch, the blackbird. 
While thus displaying his extraordinary powers, the mocking-bird is 
in an ecstasy of enjo3'ment, — spreading his wings, expanding his tail, 
and giving himself up, like a true musician, to the full development of 
his wonderful gift. 
, BIRDS OF JAMAICA. 
But to return to the birds of Jamaica. In enumerating its wood- 
land songsters we must not forget the wild doves. In the depths of 
the mountain forests may be heard the plaintive cadences of the glossy- 
plumaged mountain witch, and the loud hollow calls of the ring-tail 
and the blue pigeon. The woods that clothe with luxuriant foliage 
the lower hills echo with the energetic strain of the baldpate, the 
