spots. Always ready to defend, but never over anxious to conceal his nest, he very often builds within a small distance of a house; and not unfrequently in a pear or apple tree, rarely higher than six or seven feet from the ground. The nest is composed of dry twigs, weeds, straw, wool and tow, ingeniously put together, and lined with fine fibrous roots. During the time when the female is sitting, neither cat, dog, man, or any animal can approach the nest without being attacked. But the whole vengeance of the bird is directed against his mortal enemy the black snake. Whenever this reptile is discovered, the male darts upon it with the rapidity of an arrow, dextrously eluding its bite, and striking it violently and incessantly against the head, where it is very vulnerable. The snake soon becomes sensible of his danger, and seeks to escape; but the intrepid bird redoubles his exertions, and as the snake’s strength begins to flag, he seizes and lifts it up from the ground, beating it with his wings, and when the business is completed, he returns to his nest, mounts the summit of the bush, and pours out a torrent of song in token of victory.
Mocking Birds.
‘The plumage of the mocking bird has nothing gaudy or brilliant in it, but that which so strongly recommends him, is his full, strong and musical voice, capable of almost every modulation, from the mellow tones of the woodthrush, to the savage screams of the bald eagle. In his native groves, mounted on the top of a tall bush, in the dawn of a dewy morning, while the woods are already vocal with a multitude of warblers, his admirable song rises pre-eminent over every competitor. The ear can listen to his music alone. Nor is the strain altogether imitative. His own native notes are bold and full, and varied seemingly beyond all limits. They consist of short expressions of two, three, or five and six syllables, generally interspersed with imitations, all of them uttered with great emphasis and rapidity, and continued for an hour at a time with undiminished ardor; his expanded wings and tail glistening with white, and the buoyant gaiety of his action arresting the eye, as his song most irresistibly does the ear. He sweeps round with enthusiastic ecstasy—he mounts and descends as his song swells or dies away—and, as Mr. Bartram has beautifully expressed it, “he bounds aloft with the celerity of an arrow, as if to recover or recall his very soul, expired in the last elevated strain.” While thus exerting himself, a bystander would suppose that the whole feathered tribes had assembled together on a trial for skill—so perfect are his imitations.
‘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 bristling feathers, clucking to protect her injured brood. The barking of the dog, the mewing of the cat, the creaking of the 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 quiverings 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 silent, while he seems to triumph in their defeat by redoubling his exertions.’
Warblers.—The Summer Yellow Bird, or Warbler, is a brilliant and common species, found in every part of the American continent; he is about five inches in length, with an upper plumage of greenish yellow, and wings and tail deep brown, edged with yellow. He is a lively and familiar bird, and a great ornament to the gardens and orchards. His nest is built with great neatness in the fork of a small shrub. It is composed of flax or tow, strongly twisted round the twigs, and lined with hair and the down of fern. This interesting little bird will feign lameness to draw one from his nest, fluttering feebly along, and looking back to see if he is followed. His notes are few and shrill, hardly deserving the name of a song. There is a very great variety belonging to the family of warblers, of which we can only allude to the Prairie, Hemlock, Pine-swamp, Blue-mountain, Chesnut-sided, Mourning, and Blue-winged Warbler.
Ferruginous Thrush.—This is the Brown Thrush or Thrasher of the middle and eastern states, and the French Mocking-Bird of Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas. It is the largest of all our thrushes, and is a well-known and distinguished songster, and from the tops of hedge rows, apple or cherry trees, he salutes the opening morning with his charming song, which is loud, emphatical and full of variety. These notes are not imitative, but solely his own. He is an active and vigorous bird, flying generally low from one thicket to another, with his long broad tail spread out like a fan; he has a single note or chuck when you approach his nest.
Ferruginous Thrush.
There is a very numerous variety of thrushes in the states, of which the best known are the Cat Bird, Robin, Wood, Little or Hermit, Wilson’s, and the Golden-crowned Thrush.
Wren.—The House Wren, throughout the states, is a well-known and familiar bird, who builds his nest sometimes under the eaves, or in a hollow cherry tree; but most commonly in small boxes fixed on a pole, for his accommodation. He will even put up with an old hat, and if this also is denied him, he will find some hole or crevice, about the house or barn, rather than abandon the dwellings of man. A mower once hung up his coat, under a shed near a barn; two or three days elapsed before he had occasion to put it on; thrusting his arm up the sleeve, he found it completely filled with some rubbish as he expressed it, and on extracting the whole mass, found it to be the nest of a wren, completely finished and lined with a large quantity of feathers. In his retreat he was followed by the forlorn little proprietors, who scolded him with great vehemence, for thus ruining the whole economy of their domestic affairs.
The immense number of insects which this sociable little bird removes from the garden and fruit trees ought to endear him to every cultivator; and his notes, loud, sprightly and tremulous, are extremely agreeable. Its food is insects and caterpillars, and while supplying the wants of its young it destroys, on an average, many hundreds a day. It is a bold and insolent bird against those that venture to build within its jurisdiction; attacking them without hesitation, though twice its size, and compelling them to decamp. Even the blue bird, when attacked by this little impertinent, soon relinquishes the contest: with those of his own species, also, he has frequent squabbles. The varieties of the wren are very numerous.
The Blue Bird, is a familiar favorite throughout the continent. It is migratory, and his return is hailed in the northern states as the first presage of spring. ‘Towards autumn,’ says Mr. Nuttall, ‘in the month of October, his cheerful song nearly ceases, and is now changed into a single plaintive note. Even when the leaves have fallen, and the forest no longer affords a shelter from the blast, the faithful blue bird still lingers over his native fields, and only takes his departure in November, when, at a considerable elevation, in the early twilight of the morning, till the opening of the day, they wing their way in small roving troops to some milder regions in the south.’
Tanagers.—The Tanagers are gaudy birds, which annually visit the republic from the torrid regions of the south. The Scarlet Tanager is perhaps the most showy. He spreads himself over the United States, and is found even in Canada. He rarely approaches the habitations of man, unless perhaps in the orchard, where he sometimes builds; or in the cherry trees in search of fruit; the depth of the wood is his favorite abode. Among all the birds that inhabit our woods, there is none that strikes the eye of a stranger, or even a native, with so much brilliancy as this. Seen among the green leaves, with the light falling strongly on his plumage, he is really beautiful. Another species, the summer red bird, delights in a flat sandy country, covered with wood, and interspersed with pine trees; and is, consequently, more numerous towards the shores of the Atlantic than in the interior.
Tanager.
Finches.—The Song Sparrow is the most generally diffused over the United States, and is the most numerous of all our sparrows; and it is far the