The weekly true Democrat. (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1905-1912, 1905-12-01
hooking BIRD.
Il Is Unrivalsd by Any Bird But the
Hermit Thrush.

Early explorers or America carried
back with them to Europe stories of
bird which sang more sweetly than the
nightingale. Europe only half believed,
and today, after the lapse of centuries,
it is only half convinced.
1t was the Southern mocker heard in
the clearings and along the green banks
Of the water courses which chained the
attention of the music-loving Spaniard.
The hooking bird sings as sweetly to-
day as it sang when DeSoto, journey
ing westward, listened all the way to
it's music.
Ever since the day when its notes
were first heard by the ears of the pio-
neers the human singers have been try
ing to catch the Inspiration of the
mocker's song and to do it justice in
poetry. The human singers never fully
have succeeded, The mocker Is the
most versatile of all the woodland choir.
He can, if he will, touch harshness, as
he touches harmony, and at times the
admiration of the listener is more for
the bird 8 variety than Cor its melody
No hooking bird in all the range of
its performances ever equaled in pure
music the hymn-like notes of the hermit
greater, if not the more appealing
singer. When the bird confines itself
to the notes which are its own by birth
right, its native notes, as it were, there
is trace of nothing save an exalting
measure. The bird however, is a born
borrower, and to that with which ma
ture has endowed 1t there is constantly
being added the belongings of others.
1t is interesting to read the accounts
of the hooking birds songs as set down
by the early Ornithologists Audubon,
Wilson and Nuttall listened to the
mocker, and were in turn moved to
sing, even though they did their singing
in prose. Some of the fathers Of bird
science in America nearly exhausted
the supply of adjectives in the English
language in their endeavor to give their
readers adequate description of the
song of the hooking bird. One solo
heard amid the surroundings Of a South
ern spring drives from the memory all
thoughts of human praise of the birds
voice, and the song itself remains to
take their place.
There is a luxuriance in the singing
Of the mocker and the proper setting
for the song is the warmth and luxuri-
ance of the South The bird, however,
uOeS not GHliIely ueBleCl tic uluSlS
lovers Of the North II sings and nests
occasionally as far north as Illinois and
Massachusetts, and in the nOrthward
passage it loses nothing Of sweetness
from its song.
A few years ago the Audubon socie-
ties of the Northern States began to
receive letters from the women of the
Southland telling Of the gradual disap-
pearance of the mOcker from localities
where once its song had been heard
from every tree and thicket. The let
ters told Of the robbng Of the nests of
the birds in order that the young might
be sold in the great Northern States
The Audubon societies took up the
plea of the Southern women that the
traffic in the Knockers might be stopped,
and they succeeded in a large measure
in putting an end TO the sale Of the
s0ngsters in the Northern markets.
The songs of a hooking bird Gagged and
of a hooking bird at liberty are as diff
ferent as are the spirits of slavery and
Of freedom.
It would be a task of days TO give
adequate information Of all that has
been written concerning the song of
the Southern hooking bird. Paul Ham
ilton Hayne lived with the bird and he
caught tho ecstasy Of its song, William
Henry Timrod, like IIayne, a Southern
singer, also caught the inspiration OF
the birds note. The Southern poets,
as would seem both natural and right,
have caught best the fine frenzy of this
singer Of the Southern forests Chr
cago Post.