Ross Baty, age 10, of Wichita, Kansas, for his question:

Why does a mockingbird sing at night?

Some people are annoyed when a mockingbird wakes them up in the middle of the night. Others enjoy the chance to hear his lovely song. Actually, it is one of the loveliest bird songs we ever hear. During the day, the mocker has a lot of fun imi¬tating all sorts of sounds that go on in the neighborhood. You might never guess that he has one of the most beautiful singing voices in the entire bird world. But he has.

Nobody seems to know why he saves his loveliest songs for a midnight opera. It may be because during the day other birds are singing at the tops of their voices and all sorts of other noises are going on. No doubt the mocker's loveliest songs would be lost in the hubbub. !'ho knows, perhaps this is Tohy he saves his glorious voice until the sleeping world is quiet. Often he chooses a time when the moon shines bright. Mho knows, perhaps the roonlight wakes him up and he decides to sing himself back to sleep, t~lhatever his reasons are, let's enjoy his midnight opera.