cxxx LIFE OF WILSON. 
finement. In his domesticated state, when he commences his career of song, 
it is impossible to stand by uninterested. He whistles for the dog : Cassar 
starts up, wags 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, clucking to protect her injured brood. He runs over the quiverings 
of the Canary, and the clear whistlings of the Virginia Nightingale or lied- 
bird, with such superior execution and etFcct, 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 sud- 
denly surprised by the shrill reiterations of the Whip-poor-will, while the notes 
of the Killdeer, Blue Jay, 3Iartin, Baltimore, and twenty others, succeed, with 
such imposing reality, that we look round for the originals, and discover, with 
astonishment, that the sole performer in this singular conrcrt 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 enthusiasm, seeming not only to sing, but to dance, keeping time to the 
measure of his own music. Both in his native and domesticated state, during 
the solemn stillness of night, as soon as the moon rises in silent majesty, he 
begins his delightful solo ; and serenades us with a full display of his vocal 
powers, making the whole neighborhood ring with his inimitable medley." 
I will give but one example more of our author's descriptive powers, and 
that will be found in his history of the Bald Eagle. As a specimen of nervous 
writing, it is excellent; in its imagery, it is unsurpassed; and in the accuracy 
of its detail, it transcends all praise. 
"This distinguished bird, as he is the most beautiful of his tribe in this 
part of the world, and the adopted cDihlem of our country, is entitled to par- 
ticular notice. He has been long known to naturalists, being common to both 
continents, and occasionally met with from a very high northern latitude, to the 
borders of the torrid zone, but chiefly in the vicinity of the sea, and along 
the shores and cliffs of our lakes and large rivers. Formed by nature for 
braving the severest cold ; feeding equally on the produce of the sea, and of 
the land ; possessing powers of flight capable of outstripping even the tempests 
themselves; unawed by anything but man ; and from the ethereal heights to 
which he soars, looking abroad, at one glance, on an immeasurable expanse of 
forests, fields, lakes, and ocean, deep below him; he appears indifi^erent to the 
little localities of change of seasons ; as in a few minutes he can pass from 
summer to winter, from the lower to the higher regions of the atmosphere, the 
abode of eternal cold ; and thence descend at will to the torrid or the arctic 
regions of the earth. He is therefore found at all seasons in the countries 
which he inhabits ; but prefers such places as have been mentioned above, 
from the great partiality he has for fish. 
" In procuring these, he displays, in a very singular manner, the genius and 
