St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1885-01-10
THE MOcKING-BIRD.
A Lover of Nature Visits the Sweet Singer
In the Florida Pines.

In the Florida Pines.
Near the mouth of the ST. Marks
River. as | lay under small tree. 4
mockirg-birj came and Lit on the top
of a neighhoring bush, and sang for me
its rarest and most wonderful combina-
ton, called by the negroes the ..drop-
ping. song Whoever has closely OBJ
served the bird has noted its amounting
song very frequent performance,
wherein the songster begins on the
lowest branch of tree and appears
literally to mount on its music, from
bough TO bough, until the highest spray
of the top is reached. where it will sit
for many minutes tiinging upon the air
an ecstatic stream of almost infinitely
varied yocalization. But he who has
never heard the ..dropping song has
moekine-bird' voice. | have never
found any note OF tais extremely in
:eresting habit of the bird by any
ornithologist. 4 habit which is, | sus-
pect, occasional, and connected
with the most tender part of
the mating season. 1t is, in measure,
the reverse of the mounting song. be-
ginning where the latter leaves of. l
have heard it but four times, when | was
sure of it. during all my rambles and
patient observations in the chosen
haunts of the bird: once in North Geor-
gia. twice i'll the immediate vicinity OF
Tallahassee, Florida, and once near the
ST. Mark 5 Riter. IS above mentioned.
i have at several other times heard the
soug, as | thought. but not being able to
see the bird. or clearly distinguish the
peculiar notes. | cannot register these as
certainly correct. Ny attention was first
called to this interesting performance
by an AGED nero man, who, being with
me on an egg hunting expedition. cried
ont one morning. is burst OF strangely
rhapsodic music rang from a haw thick
ct near our eNtemporized camp, s.Lis n,
mars, lis'n, dar, he's a-droppin, he's
a-droppin'. sho's yo' bo'n! / could.
not see the bird. and before / could Get
my attention rightly fixed upon the song
it had ended.
Something of the rare aroma. so to
speak. OF the curiousiy nioiulatea trilis
and auasers fingered in my memory,
however. along with Uncle Jos graphic
description of the birds actions. After
that was on the lookout for an oppor-
tunity to verify The ne-ro's statements.
I have not exactly kept the date Of my
first actual observation. but It WIS late
in April, or very early in MAY: for the
crab-apple trees, growing wild in the
Georgian hills. We're in full bloom and
spring had come TO stay. | had been
Sut since the first sparkle of daylight.
The sun was rising. and | had been
standing quite still for some minutes,
watching mocking-bird that was sing
ing in a snatchy, broken way, rs it tiut-
tered about ina thics>-topped crab-apple
tree thirty yards distant from me. Sud-
denly the bird. Il fine specimen. leaped
like flash to the highest spray of the
tree and began TO ilutter in trem-
bling. peculiar way, with its wings half
most Immediately there came a strange,
aurolino series of notes. liquid and sweet,
that seemed to express utter rapture.
Then the bird dropped. with backward
motion. from the spray. and began to
fall slowly and somewhat spirailv down
through the bloon-cosered boughs. Its
progress was quite like that of Il bird
wounded to death by shot, eEnging
here and there To twig. quivering. and
weakly striking with its wings rs it fell.
but all tie time it was pouring forth the
most exquisite gushes and trills of song,
not at all like its usual medley ofimpro-
visei limitations. but strikingly, almost
starslinglv. individual and unique. The
bird appeared to be dying of an ecstasy
of musical inspiration. The lower it
fell the louder and more raptuAbus be-
came its voice. until the song ended on
the ground in burst of Incompatible
vocal power. 1t remained for short
time. after its song was ended, crouch
ing where it had fallen. with its wings
outspread. and quiyering and painting
rs ii utterly cNhaustei: then it leaped
boldly into the air and flew away into
an adjacent thicket. Since then, as |
have said, three other opportunities
have been afforded me of witnessing
this curiou>ly pleasing exhibition of
bird-acting. can half imagine what
another ode Keats might have written
had his eyes seen and his ears heard
that strange, fascinating, dramatically
rendered song. Grit might better have
suited Stellers powers of expression.
1t is said that the grandest bursts of
oratorv are those which contain 4 strong
trace of a reserve of power. This may
be true: but is not the best song that
wherein the voice sweeps. with the last
expression OF ecstasy, from wave to
wave of music until with supreme eff
fort it wrealss its fullest power. thus
/ ending in victory over the final OBJ
stacle. rs if with its utmost reach? BE
this as it may, whoever may be fortu-
nate enough to hear the mocking- birds :
..dropping song" and at the same time
see the birds action, will at once have
the idea of genius. pure and simple,
suggested to him.-itiaatic 9fonthiy.
My dear, said Mr.. Snigginbot-
TOM to his wife one day at the table. a:
he yaliantly struggled to carve piece
of meat. why Go the butchers put
these miserable wooden pins into the
roasts? Every time try to carve off :
| slice | strike on one Of them" II dc
/. not know. dear. unless the meat is more
skewer that way responded Mrs Snig
ginbottom. ..Maria, think you hal
better see n uhysiciau at once I an