BRAKE NIGHTINGALE. 325 



former station. Can it be a Thrush ? surely, if it is not, it 

 ought to be. But I will watch your ways ; nay, I will note 

 down every one of your actions, mark the situation of your 

 nest, its form and component parts, your eggs and your brood, 

 and all about you and your mate, who methinks has not yet 

 reached this lovely and secluded spot ; so that perhaps at some 

 future time I may present you to some friend who feels as 

 much for and toward you as I myself do at this moment. 



" Such may have been my thoughts in those bright days of 

 my youth. If they were, they are realized ; for I now present 

 my history of the Nightingale to such a friend. That friend, 

 sweet bird ! I might say, has a faithful resemblance of your 

 handsome person, nay, such a perfect portrait, that could you 

 look at it, it would cause within your gentle breast, especially 

 at this season, quite an angry commotion, finding its truth so 

 remarkable that you might feel disposed to attack it as a rival, 

 and chase it far away from your favourite thicket. This friend 

 however I knew not in those sunny days. 



" When I was yet quite a lad, my father spoke to me of the 

 songs of birds, both of Europe and of other countries, and fre- 

 quently would endeavour to give me some idea of the afBuities 

 of different species. ' The Sky- Lark, if not so abundant,' he 

 said, ' would be thought a most charming songster ; the Gold- 

 finch, the Linnet, the Blackbird, the Song Thrush, and many 

 others are all pleasantly musical ; but the Nightingale is 

 amongst our birds as much superior as the ISlocking Bird of 

 your country is to every other songster there : and, although I 

 am fully aware that America possesses many song birds of con- 

 siderable powers, nay perhaps, on the whole, more so than 

 Europe, I have never been able to convince either my country- 

 men or Englishmen of this truth. Of all this however you 

 must judge for yourself. Go early and late to the woods, lis- 

 ten with attention to the songs of the birds ; and be assured 

 that while you will find them daily becoming more and more 

 pleasing, you will be enabled to establish the truth of these 

 matters, to which, I am sorry to say, few persons pay much 

 attention.' 



" Such lessons, Reader, have never been forgotten by me. 



