United States or Finland ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
And he began to whistle like a mocking-bird; for this was his one accomplishment, and he was proud of it. Presently he heard a funny burst of laughter from the parrot, and then the voice said, "No, Polly, you can't sing like that bird. I wonder where he is? Among the bushes over there, I think. Come, Pippo, let us go and find him." "Now she's coming!"
Presently the instruments changed their mood, the flageolet pretended to be a mocking-bird, all trills, the fiddles passionately declared they were dreaming now-ow of Hallie tr-r-r-ee! dear Hallie tr-r-r-ee! sweet Hallie tr-r-r-ee! and the bassoon and double bass responded from the depths of their emotions, "Hmmh! hmmh! hm-hm-hmmh!" Ravenel and his guests appeared on the floor; Major Garnet, too.
Parrots and many other birds, on the contrary like the starling and still more markedly the American mocking-bird being endowed with considerable flexibility of voice, imitate either songs or spoken words with great distinctness. In the parrot the power of attention is also very considerable, for the bird will often try over with itself repeatedly the lesson it has set itself to learn.
A parrot calls out in Spanish from the center of the patio where our rooms look out on an arcade running round the court in a perfect square. A mocking-bird trills saucily from his cage amid the cosmos bloom. Donkeys and burros amble past the rear gate with loads of wood strapped to their backs. Your back window looks out on the courtyard.
But Kitty looked paler and wearier than when the doctor was with her. Even with him she rose to her part just a little; couldn't help it. And he took his share of her vivacity and sparkle, like every one else. He believed that his presence was soothing to her. But he admired; and whoever admired, blew on the flame, however lightly. The mocking-bird was in great form this morning.
"That bird calling now is a bee-bird," he said, referring to a kingbird; "and we have a bird that is called the French mocking-bird; he catches other birds."
"She must come to Sunday-school," he thought, "if she stays in Princess Anne. We will polish her." The mocking-bird, not being satisfied with any lull in the conversation, "pearted up," as he saw Vesta withdraw, and cried, "'Sband! 'Sband! Meee shack! Mee-ee-ee-shack! See me! see me! Gents! gents! gents! genten! Sweet! sweetie! sweetie! Hoo! hoo! See! see! Vesty, she! Ha! ha!"
It seemed to afford both of them great satisfaction; perhaps it expressed contempt more fully than was possible in any other way. The largest bird in the room, a Mexican thrush, was considerably stronger and fiercer than our native wood-thrush, and it seemed absurd for the mocking-bird to measure swords with him.
The thrush, astonished, but thrush-like to the last, stood motionless where he had stopped, his body drawn to a point, bill slightly open and turned toward the bold intruder. That bird ignored his attitude and placidly went on eating, and three similar experiences ended that annoyance. One thing still remained unsettled: the mocking-bird decided to change his residence.
He sniffed the familiar odor, and listened to a redbird's whistle, and to a mocking-bird echoing it; and to the fiddling of grasshoppers, the whispers of trees, the quiet, soft movement of the swamp water. The long thoughts that came to him in the open crossed his mind as clouds cross the sky, idly, moving slowly, breaking up and drifting with the wind.
Word Of The Day