Fig. 24. The scientific name of the mockingbird is Mimus polyglottos. Mimus is Latin for "one who mimes," referring to the bird’s mimetic abilities, and polyglottos is Greek, meaning "many-tongues" or "harmonious." Thus, the mockingbird is a manytongued mime.
The jasmine, throwing wide her elegant sweets, The deep dark green of whose unvarnish’d leaf Makes more conspicuous, and illumines more, The bright profusion of her scatter’d stars.
The Task, Vol. VI
—William Cowper
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