MELOHY OP VOICE. 
169 
ception to this law, we at present know, is the instance 
just cited. Yet, although the Insessorial birds are thus 
distinguished, the faculty is restricted to certain families, 
while it is totally denied to others. 1 he Ilentirostral 
tribe is more especially distinguished in this respect, for 
in that group we have the tvhole of the thrushes, mock- 
birds, warblers, nightingales, robins, &c. The Coni- 
rostral tribe, in the typical examples, does not contain 
many songsters ; but in such groups as blend into the 
adjoining tribe, we have the whole family of finches, 
which includes the bullfinches, linnets, goldfinches, 
canaries, and all the thick-hilled songsters, whose strong 
and varied notes are commonly heard in the woods oi 
Europe. It appears difficult among so many songsters, 
each varying in its style and intonation, to decide which 
family is entitled to the most pre-eminent station. 1 he 
chirping school, however, must give place to the war- 
bhng style of the thrushes and the nightingales, whose 
full and rich melodies are certainly superior to the notes 
of the canary. Ilut when to the perfection of the 
thrush is superadded the power of imitating the notes 
of all others, the mockbird {Orpheus poii/glottus) must 
be enthroned as the queen of thJ feathered songsters. 
The astonisliing vocal potvers possessed by this cele- 
brated bird have been dwelt upon hy one whose de- 
scription unites the truth of prose with the feelings and 
beauty of poetry. The English reader may be inchned 
to think the picture of the American mockbird drawn 
by M'ilson, is somewhat too highly coloured; hut even 
admitting this, for the sake of argument, still the simple 
fact would remain, that this species can naturally imitate, 
“to the life,” the song of every other bird, almost of every 
animal, which it once hears, while at the same time it pos- 
sesses a rich and peculiar song of its own. W e cannot 
say thus much of any European bird, and their powers 
are consequently inferior. Hirds possessing this natural 
habit of imitation are not, however, confined to the genus 
Orpheus. Some of the shrikes employ this faculty for 
the purpose, we may conjecture, of alluring small birds 
