"Listen to the mocking bird!" exclaimed Joyce, early the next morning.
"It sounds as if he would burst his throat. Sometimes his song is loud,
and then again he whistles softly, like our canary."

As they listened, the bird whistled shrilly, like the cardinal; then he
trilled like the canary, and chirped like the sparrow. He gave a call
like the hen quail's, and sang a song exactly like the song of the
bluebird. Then he twittered like a number of smaller birds, sang the
song of the robin, and came back to the whistle of the cardinal.

"Did you ever hear such a wonderful song?" cried Joyce. "I could listen
to him all day long."

"I like to hear him sing in the daytime, too," laughed Grandma; "but
during the night I don't enjoy it so much. Last spring the mocking birds
built their nest in the same tree where that little fellow is singing
now; and such music, all night long, during the time when they were
nesting! It was beautiful, but it kept me awake many an hour when I
should have been sleeping. Mocking birds usually build their nests near
houses, to protect themselves from robbers."

"Robbers! What kind?" exclaimed Don.

"Sometimes larger birds; and sometimes cats, or snakes. You can always
tell when a robber is about, by the fuss the old birds make. Last spring
I heard a great commotion in that tree, and I went out to see what was
the trouble. I looked about for quite a while before I discovered the
nest; and all the time, the birds were darting here and there and giving
their sharp little cries of distress. When at last I found the nest, I