330 
THE LIVING WORLD. 
tipper parts of the body being a russet-brown, and the breast and abdomen 
a grayish-white. The nest is made of grass and leaves, with little regard 
for appearances or strength, and is usually lodged in the low branches of a 
tree or on some shrubbery. The eggs are of an olive-brown and usually 
five in number. The nightingale is the sweetest singer of European birds, 
though at times, like the cat-bird, its cry is very unmusical. 
The Brown Thrush (Harporhynchus rufus) is the American rival of the 
nightingale, whose notes he can almost equal. This bird comes to us in May 
and may then be found always in pairs in nearly every thick hazel copse, where 
it generally builds its nest, though sometimes a spot on the ground is selected, 
in which usually four eggs mottled with brown specks are deposited. It sings 
generally during early morn, and sometimes will pour forth its rich melody for 
hours, making the woods 
ring with its charming in¬ 
strumentation. The thrush 
is noted also for its attach¬ 
ment and affection for its 
young, in whose defence it 
will brave any danger. 
The color is a brown on 
the back, hackled with 
white on the breast. 
The Mocking Bird 
(.Mimus polyglottis ) is be¬ 
yond compare the most pro¬ 
ficient minstrel in all the 
world’s feathered orchestra. 
Its home is the new 
world, being found in North 
and South America, but 
rarely above latitude 40°, 
and being numerous only 
far south of this line. It 
is not a bird of bright plu¬ 
mage, but the ease and 
gracefulness of his motions, 
the nervous throbbing of 
his wings, and the joyous 
animation displayed while warbling and trilling his varied lays, mark him as a 
creature of surprising intellect and extraordinary accomplishments. He possesses 
a voice capable of almost inconceivable modulation, ranging a gamut measurable 
by all the sounds between the gentle “ cheep ” of the sparrow to the harsh scream 
of the eagle; from the soft pianissimo to the multisonus , a perfect diapason of har¬ 
mony. In his native groves among the magnolias at morning’s dawn, when 
the wood is already vocal with a multitude of songsters, his’ voice rises pre¬ 
eminent above every competitor. His expanded wings and tail, glistening with 
white, and the buoyant gaiety of his actions arresting the eye as his song 
most irresistibly does the ear, he sweeps round with enthusiastic ecstasy, and 
mounts or descends as his song swe.lls or dies away. While thus exerting 
BROWN THRUSH. 
