Page images
PDF
EPUB

the works we have quoted contain respecting this bird, which he calls

"That cheerful one, who knoweth all

The songs of all the winged choristers;
And, in one sequence of melodious sounds,
Pours all their music *."

[ocr errors]

He adds in a note that "a negress was once heard to exclaim, Please God Almighty, how sweet that mocking-bird sing! he never tire.' By day and night he sings alike; when weary of mocking others, the bird takes up its own natural strain, and so joyous a creature is it, that it will jump and dance to its own music. This bird is perfectly domestic, the Americans holding it sacred. Would that we had more of these humane prejudices in England, if that word may be applied to a feeling so good in itself and in its tendency t."

By far the most circumstantial account, however, of this wonderful bird (which Ray has even gone so far as to place among the fabulous and doubtful species in his Appendix to Willughby's Ornithology) is given by Wilson in a characteristically graphic passage. "This celebrated and very extraordinary bird," he says, "in extent and variety of vocal powers, stands unrivalled by the whole feathered songsters of this or perhaps any other country; and shall receive from us all that attention and respect which superior merit is justly entitled to. The plumage of the mocking-bird, though none of the homeliest, 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, elegance, 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 * Madoc, ii. 48.

+ Davies, Brazil, quoted by Southey, Madoc, ii. 235.

interior of the nest," says a recent writer," is made of soft grass, and wool, hair, or feathers." Two fine specimens now before us have no plastering on the outside; but upon the foundation, layers of sticks, pieces of turf and clay are piled up, intermixed with sticks, chiefly thorns, and on the top of the mound thus formed a circular hollow cup of well-wrought clay is built, of considerable thickness, and about a foot deep. This is lined with a mass of pliable roots both of trees and herbs, very neatly interwoven into

[graphic][ocr errors]

Nest of the Magpie (Pica caudata, RAY), drawn from specimen.

*Brit. Nat, ii.219,

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 mimic, and are decoyed by the fancied calls of their mates; or dive with precipitation into the depth of thickets, 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 commences his career of song, it is impossible to stand by uninterested. He whistles for the dog; Cæsar 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, clucking to protect its injured brood. The barking of the dog, the mewing of the cat, the creaking of a passing wheelbarrow, follow with great truth and rapidity. He repeats the tune taught him by his master, though of considerable length, fully and faithfully. He runs over the quaverings of the canary, and the clear whistlings of the Virginia nightingale, or red-bird, with such superior execution and effect, that the mortified 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 whip-poor-will; while the notes of the kildeer, the blue

size of a pea and upwards, part of which are drawn out to assist in felting; so that when the texture of the nest is stretched, portions of fine gossamer-like threads appear among the fibres of the wool,-the circumstance, no doubt, which misled Derham. His description, however, is otherwise good. "Having," he says, 66 neatly built and covered her nest with these materials without, she thatcheth it on the top with branchy tree moss (Hypnum proliferum ?), or such like broad whitish moss, to keep out rain and to dodge the spectator's eye, and within she lineth it with a great number of soft feathers, so many, that I confess I could not but admire how so small a room could hold them, especially that they could be laid so close and handsomely together, to afford sufficient room for a bird with so long a tail, and so numerous an issue as this bird commonly hath." A still more minute and correct description is given by Aldrovand. "It was," says he, "of an oblong figure, like a pineapple, of two palms length, and one broad, round, built of sundry materials, namely, both tree and earth moss, caterpillars' webs, and other woolly-like matter, and feathers, with that order and art, that the chief and middle strength of the work, or texture of the walls, was of that yellowish-green moss, the common hairy moss, that silk-like substance, and tough threads resembling those filaments suspended in the air, and flying up and down like spiders' webs, which are accounted signs of fair weather, connected and interwoven, or rather entangled so firmly together that they can hardly be plucked asunder. Of the interior capacity, all the sides, it seemed, as well as the bottom, were covered and lined with feathers, for the more soft and warm lying of the young. The outmost superficies round about was fenced and strengthened with fragments of that leafy moss which everywhere grows on trees, firmly bound together.

In the fore-part, respecting the sun-rise, and that above (where an arched roof of the same uniform matter and texture as the sides and bottom covered the nest), was seen a little hole, scarce big enough, one would think, to admit the old one

[ocr errors]
[graphic][merged small][merged small]

Nest of the Bottle-Tit (Parus caudatus), drawn from specimen

*Aldrovandi Ornithologia, xvii.

« PreviousContinue »