ORDER PASSERES. Mocking Bird. Mocking Thrush. Turdus polyglottus. THIS amusing inhabitant of the American woods is called, by the Mexicans, "the bird of four hundred languages." It derives its name from the talent it possesses of imitating the songs of other birds. Its own natural song is sweet and varied, but to this it adds the notes of almost all the other birds it hears in the extensive forests and savannahs of America. Its imitations do not merit the name of mocking, since it does not caricature the songs of other birds, but copies them with much skill and taste, throwing in notes of his own at intervals, and giving to the borrowed strain added grace and harmony. Waterton, who had many opportunities of observing this bird in its native haunts, thus describes it: "The cassique, or mocking-bird, is larger than the starling. He courts the society of man, but disdains to live by his labours. When nature calls for support, he repairs to the neighbouring forest, and there partakes of the over, fruits and seeds which she has produced in abundance for her aërial tribes. When his repast is he returns to man, and pays the little tribute which he owes him for his protection: he takes his station close to his house, and there, for hours together, pours forth a succession of imitative notes. His own song is sweet, but very short. If a toucan be yelping in the neighbourhood, he drops it, and imitates him. Then he will amuse his protector with the cries of the different species of the woodpecker; and when the sheep bleat, he will distinctly answer them. Then comes his own song again, and if a puppy-dog, or a guinea-fowl, interrupt him, he takes them off admirably, and by his different gestures during the time, you would conclude that he enjoys the sport. The cassique is gregarious, and imitates any sound he hears with such exactness, that he goes by no other name than that of mocking-bird amongst the colonists. At breeding time, a number of these pretty choristers resort to a tree near the planter's house, and from its outside branches weave their pendulous nests. So conscious do they seem that they never give offence, and so little suspicious are they of receiving any injury from man, that they will choose a tree within forty yards from his house, and occupy the branches so low down, that he may peep into the nests. The cassique may be said to be a model of symmetry in ornithology, the proportions are so fine. On each wing he has a bright yellow spot, and his rump, belly, and half the tail, are of the same colour: all the rest of the body is black. His beak is the colour of sulphur, but it fades in death.”* This bird defends its eggs and young, with singular courage, from the attacks of its enemies, whether birds of prey or reptiles. In Audubon's magnificent work on the birds of America, is a beautiful picture of mocking-birds, defending their nest from a rattlesnake. Mr. A. has been studying the habits of the birds of his country, in the midst of their native haunts, for twentyfive years, it is said; and his animated sketches are made from the life, and tell their own story to the eye of the spectator. THE MOCKING-BIRD. Beneath the mighty forest oak, And listens, from his sheltering tree, * See Waterton's Wanderings, p. 117. |