THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 19, 1995 TAG: 9504190026
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LAWRENCE MADDRY
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
PROUD AS ANY Italian tenor, the gray bird with a spaded white tail did a few quick side steps on the limb between arias, looking down to see if anyone had noticed.
A mockingbird.
It was way up there in the holly tree growing near the side entrance of the newspaper building. Singing its butt off.
Treeeep. . . treeep. . . treeep.
The bird's call was clear and penetrating, carrying over the curb and all the way across the parking lot. A customer who had come to buy an ad paused by his car door to listen, eyes searching the holly tree. Where was the sound coming from?
As mockingbird concerts go, it was rather short compared to the moonlit, night-long concerts the relentless mimics give from high atop magnolia trees on hot summer nights.
But our bird, who seemed to draw inspiration as a few of us watched beneath the tree, imitated three or four birds while we listened.
Amazing.
``You see them all over my yard,'' one of the admirers said.
``They seem to like high places,'' said another. ``I see them on telephone wires all the time.''
The mockingbird looked down with pellety eyes no larger than the tiny black beads on a fancy doll's dress. It spread its wings with a vigorous flutter, like an orchestra conductor about to finish the 1812 Overture with a vengeance. Then it settled down again, raising its bill for another melodic call.
Trullup. . . trullluppp. . . trullup.
Barbara Radley, who stood with a clutch of us near the tree, raised an interesting question.
``Does the mockingbird sing to show off or to entertain?'' she wondered.
She believes the bird is a natural showoff and perches on high places to be noticed and admired.
The conversation ended a moment later when we all walked inside. Since then, the mockingbird in the holly tree has been on my mind.
How many bird calls can the mockingbird imitate? That question sent me running to The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds.
Turns out nobody knows. But the encyclopedia mentioned that a mockingbird has imitated the calls of 32 species of birds within 10 minutes. To many, the bird is the symbol of the South. Known for its aggressiveness and curiosity, it is the state bird of five states.
The bird may be a showoff, but it is so good at imitating the call of another bird, its rendition is so perfect, that electronic analysis cannot detect the difference from the original.
But the mockingbird isn't the mimic of song bird sounds alone. No siree. A mockingbird can, apparently, imitate any sound it hears.
Among the other sounds that mockingbirds have made are: the cackling of a hen, squeaking of a wheelbarrow, barking of a dog, postman's whistle and notes of a piano.
The Audubon Encyclopedia has outdone itself in the thoroughness with which it cites ornithologists who have heard interesting sounds coming from a mockingbird's throat.
In the summer of 1923, a diligent Frank F. Gander stood beneath a mockingbird in Wichita, Kan., and heard it give ``a perfect vocal imitation of the long, rattling, drumming sounds of a red-headed woodpecker that hammered with its bill on a metal projection on the roof of a house.''
I have learned a heap about the mockingbird I didn't know after that brush with the Audubon Society Encyclopedia. Sure would be nice to do something nice for the encyclopedia's editors in return.
Maybe you can help. If you've heard a mockingbird imitate something special - Frank Gander did - drop me a line. Whether it's the sound of a Harley-Davidson, the blast of a missile or a doorbell, doesn't matter. I'll be happy to pass the information along. Please lemme hear. Simply write: Listen To The Mockingbird, c/o Lawrence Maddry, The Virginian-Pilot, 150 W. Brambleton Ave., Norfolk, Va. 23510. by CNB