94 
TURDUS POLYGLOTTUS. 
screaming 1 of swallows, or the cackling of hens ; amidst 
the simple melody of the robin, we are suddenly surprised 
by the shrill reiterations of the whip-poor-will ; while 
the notes of the killdeer, blue jay, martin, 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 concert 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 de- 
lightful solo ; and serenades us the livelong night with 
a full display of his vocal powers, making the whole 
neighbourhood ring with his inimitable medley.* 
Were it not to seem invidious in the eyes of foreign- 
ers, I might, in this place, make a comparative statement 
between the powers of the mocking bird, and the only 
bird, I believe, in the world, worthy of being 1 compared 
with him, — the European nightingale. This, however, 
I am unable to do from my own observation, having 
never myself heard the song of the latter ; and, even if 
I had, perhaps something might be laid to the score of 
* The hunters in the southern States, when setting out on an 
excursion by night, as soon as they hear the mocking bird begin 
to sing, know that the moon is rising. 
A certain anonymous author, speaking of the mocking birds in 
the Island of Jamaica, and their practice of singing by moonlight, 
thus gravely philosophizes, and attempts to account for the habit. 
(( It is not certain,” says he, is whether they are kept so wakeful 
by the clearness of the light, or by any extraordinary attention and 
vigilance, at such times, for the protection of their nursery from 
the piratical assaults of the owl and the night hawk. It is possible 
that fear may operate upon them, much in the same manner as it 
has been observed to affect some cowardly persons, who whistle 
stoutly in a lonesome place, while their mind is agitated with the 
terror of thieves or hobgoblins.” — History of Jamaica , vol. iii, 
p. 894, quarto. . 
