THE NATURAL HISTORY 
.•5° 
The MOCKING THRUSH. 
Its back is dufky, its bread and two outmofl tail feathers i 
are white, and its eyebrows are white. 
It is an inhabitant of America. 
Sufpended in the air, it enraptures thofe whof* 
hear it with its fong; which no melody can, 
rival. 
Though its natural notes be inexpreffibly 
fweet, its powers of imitation are fuch, that it can 
mimic the fong of every bird it hears, and any ^ 
other noife however difeordant; the mewing of a 
cat, the chattering of a magpye, or the croaking ( 
of a frog; from the variety of its note, it has a 
name among the Mexicans which fignifies 400 
tongues. It begins generally with its own na¬ 
tural fong, and introduces into it a variety of me-, 
lodv, which it has adopted from other birds. v . 
In the warmer parts of America it is fing^i 
ing almoft inceflantly, day and night, from 
March, to Auguft ; and as though animated by 
its own inimitable fong, it gradually raifes itfelfL 
on the place it is perched on, extending its neck, 
drawing it back. Hooping, rifing, fluttering its v 
oft 
wings, and turning itfelf round with a variety oim 
adtion. x c 
The I 
