88 
WILD SCENES AND SONG-BIRDS. 
sional relish, of the common house spider. This insect seems 
to act in some way medicinally npon many varieties of birds, 
and even the finches are occasionally benefited by them. Of 
the song and peculiar habits of the mocking bird Wilson 
says : 
" In measure and accent, he faithfully follows his origin- 
als. In force and sweetness of expression he greatly im- 
proves upon them. In his native groves, mounted on the 
top of a tall bush, or half-grown tree, in the dawn of dewy 
morning, while the woods are already vocal with a multitude 
of warblers, his admirable song rises pre-eminent. Over 
every other competitor the ear can listen to his music alone, 
to which that of all others seems a mere accompaniment. 
Neither is this strain altogether imitative. His own native 
notes, which are easily distinguishable by such as are well 
acquainted with those of our various song-birds, are bold 
and full, and varied seemingly beyond all limits. They con- 
sist of short expressions of two, three, or, at the most, five 
or six syllables ; generally interspersed with intonations, and 
all of them uttered with great emphasis and rapidity ; and 
continued with undiminished ardor 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, arresting 
the eye, as his song most irresistibly 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 beautifully expressed it, 'He bounds aloft with the 
celerity of an arrow, as if to recover or recall his very soul, 
expired in the last elevated strain.' While thus exerting 
himself, a bystander destitute of sight would suppose that 
the whole feathered tribe had assembled together, on a trial 
of skill ; each striving to produce his utmost effect : so per- 
fect are his imitations. He many times deceives the sports- 
man, 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 
