APPENDIX. 697 



Hence Shakefpeare fays, 



" The nightingale, if (he mould fing by day, 



" When every goofe is cackling, would be thought 



" No better a mufician than the wren." 



The fong of this bird hath been jdefcribed, and 

 expatiated upon, by feveral ' writers, particularly 

 Pliny and Strada. 



As I mud own, however, that I cannot affix any 

 precife ideas to either of thefe celebrated defcrip- 

 tions, and as I once kept a very fine bird of this 

 fort for three years, with very particular attention 

 to its fong; I mall endeavour to do it the beft juf- 

 tice I am capable of. 



In the firft place, its tone is infinitely more mel- 

 low than that of any other bird, though, at the 

 fame time, by a proper exertion of its mufical 

 powers, it can be exceflively brilliant. 



When this bird fang its fong round, in its whole 

 compafs, I have obferved fixteen different begin- 

 nings and clofes, at the fame time that the inter- 

 mediate notes were commonly varied in their fuc- 

 ceflion with fuch judgment, as. to produce a mod: 

 pleafing variety. 



The bird which approaches nearefl to the excel- 

 lence of the nightingale, in this reipecl, is the iky 

 lark; but then the tone is infinitely inferior in 

 point of mellownefs : moft other finging birds have 

 not above four or five changes. 



The next point of fuperiority in a nightingale 

 Z Z4 fa 



