circling flight, and, alighting on a conspicuous perch, pours forth his ever-changing song to the delight of all listeners, while his actions in attendance on his mate are playfully demonstrative and equally interest the observer. The mocking-bird is moreover of familiar habits, haunting the neighbourhood of houses, and is therefore a general favourite. The nest is placed with little regard to concealment, and is not distinguished by much care in its construction. The eggs, from three to six in number, are of a pale bluish-green, blotched and spotted with light yellowish-brown. They, as well as the young, are much sought after by snakes, but the parents are often successful in repelling these deadly enemies, and are always ready to wage war against any intruder on their precincts, be it man, cat or hawk. Their food is various, consisting of berries, seeds and insects.
Some twelve or fourteen other species of Mimus have been recognized, mostly from South America; but M. orpheus seems to be common to some of the Greater Antilles, and M. hilli is peculiar to Jamaica, while the Bahamas have a local race in M. bahamensis. The so-called mountain mocking-bird (Oreoscoptes montanus) is a form not very distant from Mimus; but it inhabits exclusively the plains overgrown with sage-brush (Artemisia) of the interior tableland of North America, and is not at all imitative in its notes, so that it is an instance of a misnomer. Of the various other genera allied to Mimus, the best known are the thrashers (genus Harporhynchus) of which six or eight species are found in North America, and the cat-bird (Galeoscoptes carolinensis), which in addition to having an attractive song, utters clucks, whistles and mewing sounds. The sooty-grey colour that, deepening into blackish-brown on the crown and quills, pervades the whole of its plumage—the lower tail-coverts, which are of a deep chestnut, excepted—renders it a conspicuous object; and though, for some reason or other, far from being a favourite, it is always willing when undisturbed to become intimate with men’s abodes. It has a much wider range on the American continent than the mocking-bird, and is one of the few species that are resident in Bermuda, while on more than one occasion it is said to have appeared in Europe.
The name mocking-bird, or more frequently mock-nightingale, is occasionally given to some of the warblers (q.v.), especially the blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla), and the sedge-bird (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus). In India and Australia the same name is sometimes applied to other species. (A. N.)
MODEL (O. Fr. modelle, mod. modèle; It. modello, pattern,
mould; from Lat. modus, measure, standard), a tangible representation, whether the size be equal, or greater, or smaller, of an
object which is either in actual existence, or has to be constructed
in fact or in thought. More generally it denotes a thing, whether
actually existing or only mentally conceived of, whose properties
are to be copied. In foundries, the object of which a cast is to
be taken, whether it be for engineering or artistic purposes, is
usually first formed of some easily workable material, generally
wood. The form of this model is then reproduced in clay or
plaster, and into the mould thus obtained the molten metal is
poured. The sculptor first makes a model of the object he
wishes to chisel in some plastic material such as wax, ingenious
and complicated contrivances being employed to transfer this
wax model, true to nature, to the stone in which the final work
is to be executed. In anatomy and physiology, models are
specially employed as aids in teaching and study, and the method
of moulage or chromoplastic yields excellent impressions of
living organisms, and enables anatomical and medical preparations
to be copied both in form and colour. A special method
is also in use for making plastic models of microscopic and
minute microscopic objects. That their internal nature and
structure may be more readily studied, these are divided by
numerous parallel transverse cuts, by means of a microtome,
into exceedingly thin sections. Each of these shavings is then
modelled on an enlarged scale in wax or pulp plates, which are
fixed together to form a reproduction of the object.
Models in the mathematical, physical and mechanical sciences are of the greatest importance. Long ago philosophy perceived the essence of our process of thought to lie in the fact that we attach to the various real objects around us particular physical attributes—our concepts—and by means of these try to represent the objects to our Representation in Thought. minds. Such views were formerly regarded by mathematicians and physicists as nothing more than unfertile speculations, but in more recent times they have been brought by J. C. Maxwell, H. v. Helmholtz, E. Mach, H. Hertz and many others into intimate relation with the whole body of mathematical and physical theory. On this view our thoughts stand to things in the same relation as models to the objects they represent. The essence of the process is the attachment of one concept having a definite content to each thing, but without implying complete similarity between thing and thought; for naturally we can know but little of the resemblance of our thoughts to the things to which we attach them. What resemblance there is lies principally in the nature of the connexion, the correlation being analogous to that which obtains between thought and language, language and writing, the notes on the stave and musical sounds, &c. Here, of course, the symbolization of the thing is the important point, though, where feasible, the utmost possible correspondence is sought between the two—the musical scale, for example, being imitated by placing the notes higher or lower. When, therefore, we endeavour to assist our conceptions of space by figures, by the methods of descriptive geometry, and by various thread and object models; our topography by plans, charts and globes; and our mechanical and physical ideas by kinematic models—we are simply extending and continuing the principle by means of which we comprehend objects in thought and represent them in language or writing. In precisely the same way the microscope or telescope forms a continuation and multiplication of the lenses of the eye; and the notebook represents an external expansion of the same process which the memory brings about by purely internal means. There is also an obvious parallelism with representation by means of models when we express longitude, mileage, temperature, &c., by numbers, which should be looked upon as arithmetical analogies. Of a kindred character is the representation of distances by straight lines, of the course of events in time by curves, &c. Still, neither in this case nor in that of maps, charts, musical notes, figures, &c., can we legitimately speak of models, for these always involve a concrete spatial analogy in three dimensions.
So long as the volume of matter to be dealt with in science was insignificant, the need for the employment of models was naturally less imperative; indeed, there are self-evident advantages in comprehending things without resort to complicated models, which are difficult to make, and cannot be altered and adapted to extremely varied conditions so readily as can the easily adjusted symbols of thought, conception and calculation. Yet as the facts of science increased in number, the greatest economy of effort had to be observed in comprehending them and in conveying them to others; and the firm establishment of ocular demonstration was inevitable in view of its enormous superiority over purely abstract symbolism for the rapid and complete exhibition of complicated relations. At the present time it is desirable, on the one hand, that the power of deducing results from purely abstract premisses, without recourse to the aid of tangible models, should be more and more perfected, and on the other that purely abstract conceptions should be helped by objective and comprehensive models in cases where the mass of matter cannot be adequately dealt with directly.
In pure mathematics, especially geometry, models constructed of papier-mâché and plaster are chiefly employed to present to the senses the precise form of geometrical figures, surfaces and curves. Surfaces of the second order, represented by equations of the second degree between the rectangular co-ordinates of a point, are very Models in Mathematics and Physics. simple to classify, and accordingly all their possible forms can easily be shown by a few models, which, however, become somewhat more intricate when lines of curvature, loxodromics and geodesic lines have to appear on their surfaces. On the other hand, the multiplicity of surfaces of the third order is enormous, and to convey their fundamental types it is necessary to employ numerous models of complicated, not to say hazardous, construction. In the case of more intricate surfaces it is sufficient to present those singularities which exhibit variation from the usual type of surface with synclastic or anticlastic curvatures, such as, for example, a sharp edge or point, or
