The GREAT-CROWN'D-INDIAN-PIGEON came cooing

aloud,

Of whom might the Papuan regions be proud.

the pretended fascination of these last being ineffectual, this bird frequently destroying the noxious reptile.

The mocking-bird forms a striking exception to what is generally esteemed the character of the birds of the new world, where the rich, lively, and brilliant hues of the feathered race are very often accompanied with harsh, monotonous, and disagreeable notes, but the mocking-bird is the most melodious of all birds, the nightingale not excepted. Besides the charms of its natural song, it has the power of imitating or counterfeiting the notes of every bird of the woods; and, it is said, too, that the songs which it repeats it improves. With all these qualifications it is of very ordinary appearance compared with other birds in the American woods. It is, however, fond of the vicinity of man, and easily domesticated; it perches upon trees near the planter's houses; and sometimes upon the chimney tops, where it remains all night, pouring forth the sweetest and most varied notes. From all that can be gathered concerning the song of this bird, it appears that during the day its chief notes consist of the imitations of the songs of its neighbours; at night its song is more peculiarly its own. It is in accordance with this impression that two songs of the mocking-bird are given in the text. See forwards.

It ought, however, to be mentioned, that different accounts are given of this bird's song. Mr. SOUTHEY, in his Madoc, has thus alluded to the Mocking-bird:

"Or gladlier now

Hearkening that chearful one, who knoweth all

The songs of all the winged choristers

And in one sequence of melodious sounds

Pours all their music."

Mudoc, vol. ii. page 48.

The GROUND-PIGEONS tiny, from mountainous nest,
Came also to visit the KING of the WEST.

In notes of sad seeming the BLUE-TURTLE-DOVE
Evinc'd for his mate most affectionate love.

Of the PASSENGERS, too, many myriads were there,
And in cloudy-wav'd columns they darken'd the air.

In a note, page 235, of the same volume, Mr. SoUTHEY mentions DAVIS's Travels in America, and the Mocking-bird. A negress was heard to exclaim, "Please God Almighty, how sweet that mocking-bird sing! he never tire."

"By day and night it 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. The bird is perfectly domestic, the Americans holding it sacred." "Would," exclaims Mr. SOUTHEY, "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."

The native notes of this bird, WILSON informs us, consist of short expressions of two, three, or, at the most, of five or six syllables, generally interspersed with imitations, and all of them uttered with great emphasis and rapidity, and are continued with undiminished ardour for half an hour or an hour at a time. They have considerable resemblance to those of the BrownThrush, another American bird, but may be easily distinguished by their greater rapidity, sweetness, energy, and variety; both are called in many parts of the United States, Mocking-bird; but the brown thrush is the French, the other the English mockingbird. While this bird sings, his expanded wings and tail, his buoyant gaiety of action, arrest the eye as his song irresistibly does the ear; he mounts or descends as his song dies away;— he bounds aloft with the celerity of an arrow.” (Bartram.)

His imitations are wonderfully like the notes of the birds whom he imitates, so that the sportsmen are frequently deceived

Besides these, many more came from regions re.

mote,

But whom to description we cannot devote.
Some sent by the PIGEON excuses to make;
Some alleged inability journies to take:

by him. He loses little of his power and energy by confinement. He whistles for the dog; he squeaks out like a burt chicken the mewing of a cat, the creaking of a wheelbarrow, the quivering notes of the canary, the clear whistling of the Virginian nightingale, are alike by him distinctly and accurately expressed.

Both in his native and his domesticated state, during the stillness of night, as soon as the moon rises, he begins his solo, and during the whole of the night makes the neighbourhood ring with his inimitable melody.

There is very little difficulty in rearing these birds in America. The eagerness with which they are sought after in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia has rendered them extremely scarce for many miles around that city. They have been known also to pair and breed there in confinement. The price paid for a mocking-bird at Philadelphia has been from seven to fifteen dollars; fifty have been paid for a remarkably fine singer.

We learn from a paper in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. lxii. part ii. page 284, by the Hon. DAINES BARRINGTON, that a mocking-bird was once to be heard in London; but here, it seems, his notes were chiefly if not entirely the imitations of the notes of other birds: "his pipe," says Mr. Barrington, comes nearest to our nightingale of any bird I have ever met with." It is also, I understand, now to be seen occasionally in London. A keeper of a menagery informs me that he gave five pounds for one not long since.

As, the OSTRICH, (42) and EMEU, well known in the

east;

To credulity long both have furnished a feast;

(42) Órder, GrallÆ, (Linn.) OstRICH, EMEU, CASSOWARY,

RHEA.

The genus STRUTHIO, (Linn.) or OSTRICH, is arranged by Dr. LATHAM as a separate order, (STRUTHIONES,) consisting, with the Dodo, of four genera. It comprehends, without the Dodo, five species, not only the OSTRICH so called, but also the EMEU, the CASSOWARY, and the RHEA. This tribe has been arranged under the order GALLINE by some authors. Its characteristics are a subconic bill; oval nostrils; wings unfit for flight; feet formed for running. They are as follow: (the Dodo is described in the next note.)

The Camelus, OSTRICH, BLACK, or AFRICAN-OSTRICH, has the feet two-toed; plumage of the male black; quill feathers and those of the tail perfectly white: plumage of the female ashcolour; wings and tail black; height from the top of the head to the ground from seven to nine feet; length from the beak to the top of the tail the same; weight from eighty to one hundred and fifty pounds, or perhaps more, and is said to be the largest of birds. It is found in Africa, and the parts of Asia adjoining, and in great plenty about the Cape of Good Hope. The female is larger than the male.

From its scanty plumage and its great weight it cannot rise in the air; the covering of the body of this bird is composed of downy hairs; the thighs are large and muscular; the legs scaly ; the toes thick, having a striking similarity to those of a goat; the inner toe, including the claw, is seven inches; the other, which is without a claw, is about four inches long; the eyelids are furnished with hairs; on the breast is a callous, bare, and hard substance, serving the bird to rest on when it bends forward to sit on the ground; on each wing are two spurs, about an inch in length.

Their structure-their manners from fable apart,
Are wondrous-then wherefore embellish with art?

It is said that it never drinks. In its natural state grains and fruit are its principal food; but it will swallow, in confinement, almost every thing, and that with greediness, such as bits of iron, copper, glass, lead, &c. which sometimes prove fatal to it; it swallows pebbles in its natural state, most probably to assist the commination of its food, like many other birds, although its interior structure has, it is said, a great affinity to that of quadrupeds. In some of our books of natural history it is stated that the heart and lungs of this bird are separated by a diaphragm; but Mr. BROOKES, in a lecture at the Zoological Society, April 25, 1827, on the Ostrich which was lately dissected there, stated that the thorax and abdomen were not separated by a diaphragm; and the drawing which he exhibited of the bird confirmed his statement. He also stated, as a remarkable fact, that the intestinal canal of the Ostrich was generally about eighty feet in length, while that of the Cassowary was considerably shorter. The rings in the trachea of this bird exceeded 200 in number; its height was more than nine feet. See page 51.

This bird was a female, which had been in the possession of his Majesty for about two years; it died of obesity, and, from its appearance, its weight must have been, it is presumed, more than 150 pounds. Many gentlemen partook of the flesh. The sexual organs and the kidneys differ, it is said, materially from other birds; it has also two stomachs; the first is muscular, and appears to act by trituration, in the other there is a gastric liquor.

This bird prefers for its residence those mountainous and parched deserts which are never refreshed by rain. In those solitary regions they are seen in vast flocks, and are there hunted on fleet Arabian horses, for their blood, their fat, and the feathers found in the wings and tail; these last have been sought after more or less in all ages; it is said, however, that this bird