CCVl 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
Bartram has beautifully expressed it, “ He bounds aloft with the 
“celerity of an arrow, as if to recover or recal his very soul, which 
“expired in the last elevated strain.’’ While thus exerting him- 
self, a bystander, destitute of sight, would suppose that the whole 
feathered tribes had assembled together, on a trial of skill, each 
striving to produce his utmost effect, so perfect are his imitations. 
He many times deceives the sportsman, 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 admirable mimick, and are decoyed by the fancied calls 
of their mates ; or dive, with precipitation, into the depths of thick- 
ets, at the scream of what they suppose to be the Sparrow Hawk. 
“ The Mocking-bird loses little of the power and energy of his 
song by confinement. In his domesticated state, when he com- 
mences his career of song, it is impossible to stand by uninterested. 
He whistles for the dog: Caesar 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, cluck- 
ing to protect her injured brood. He runs over the quiverings 
of the Canary, and the clear whistlings of the Virginia Nightingale 
or Red-bird, with such superior execution and effect, that the mor- 
tified 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 suddenly surprised 
by the shrill reiterations of the Whippoorwill, while the notes of 
the Kildeer, Blue Jay, Martin, Baltimore, and twenty others, suc- 
ceed, with such imposing reality, that we look round for the origi- 
