LIFE OF WILSON. 
ccv 
The plumage of the Mocking-bird, though none of the home- 
liest, has nothing gaudy or brilliant in it; and, had he nothing else 
to recommend him, would scarcely entitle him to notice ; but his 
figure is well-proportioned, and even handsome. The ease, ele- 
gance and rapidity of his movements, the animation of his eye,* 
and the intelligence he displays in listening, and laying up lessons 
from almost every species of the feathered creation within his hear- 
ing, are really surprising, and mark the peculiarity of his genius. 
To these qualities we may add that of a voice full, strong, and 
musical, and capable of almost every modulation, from the clear 
mellow tones of the Wood Thrush, to the savage scream of the 
Bald Eagle. In measure and accent he faithfully follows his origi- 
nals. In force and sweetness of expression he greatly improves 
upon them. In his native groves, mounted upon 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 admira- 
ble song rises pre-eminent over every competitor. The ear can 
listen to his music alone, to which that of all the 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 consist of 
short expressions of two, three, or at the most five or six syllables; 
generally interspersed with imitations, and all of them uttered with 
great emphasis and rapidity; and continued, with undiminished 
ardour, 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 ecstacy — he mounts and de- 
scends as his song swells or dies away; and, as my friend Mr. 
* The reader is referred to our author's figure of this bird, which is one of the most spirit- 
ed drawings that the records of natural history can produce. 
3 r 
VOL. IX. 
