242 NATURAL HISTORY. 



LUSCINIA. 



Philomela (Gr. Qi'Xopj'ka, proper name), the Nightingale. 



" Tiuu tiuu tiuu tiuu Spc tiu zqua 

 Tio tio tio tio tio tio tio tix Qutio qutio qutio qutio 

 Zquo zquo zquo zquo Tzu tzu t.zii tzu tzu tzii tzii tzii tzii tzi 

 Quorror tiu zqua pipiquisi Zozozozozozozozozozozozo zirrhading ! &c. &c." 



So does a well-known naturalist endeavour to express the 

 wild and spiritual melody of this most exquisite of British song- 

 birds, the NIGHTINGALE. And in truth it is perhaps as good a 

 description as can be given without the aid of music. Even its 

 own marvellous notes sound comparatively weak unless backed 

 by the accompaniments of night and tranquillity ; for the in- 

 imitable song of this Mendelssohn among birds loses great part 

 of its beauty when uttered by day, deadened and confused with 

 other sounds. 



In some counties of England it is never found, but in many 

 its nightly strains are frequently heard. The fields and College 

 gardens of Oxford are full of Nightingales, whose songs add 

 greatly to the effect of the scene. Well may Isaak Walton say 

 in his delightfully quaint language : 



" But the Nightingale, another of my airy creatures, 

 breathes such sweet, loud music out of her instrumental 

 throat, that it might make mankind to think that miracles 

 are not ceased. He that at midnight when the very labourer 

 sleeps securely, should hear, as I have very often, the clear 

 airs, the sweet descents, the natural rising and falling, the 



