278 THE NIGHTINGALE 



One Sunday in summer we paid a visit to this mai-t, which we 

 shall never forget. It was not well stocked, still less harmonious ; 

 the season of moulting and of silence had begun. We were not the 

 less keenly attracted by and interested in the naive attitude of a few 

 individuals. Ordinarily their song and their plumage, the bird's two 

 principal attributes, preoccupy us, and prevent us from observing 

 their lively and original pantomime. One bird, the American mock- 

 ing-bird, has a comedian's genius, distinguishing all his songs by a 

 mimicry strictly appropriate to their character, and often very ironical. 

 Our birds do not possess this singular art ; but, without skill, and 

 unknown to themselves, they express, by significant and frequently 

 pathetic movements, the thoughts which traverse their brain. 



On this particular day, the queen of the market was a black- 

 capped warbler, an artist-bird of great value, set apart in the display 

 from the other birds, like a peerless jewel. She fluttered, svelte 

 and charming ; all in her was grace. Accustomed to captivity by a 

 long training, she seemed to regret nothing, and could only communi- 

 cate to the soul happy and gentle impressions. She was plainly a 

 being of perfect geniality, and of such harmony of song and move- 

 ment, that in seeing her move I thought I heard her sing. 



Lower, very much lower, in a narrow cage, a bird somewhat 

 larger in size, very inhumanly confined, gave me a curious and quite 

 opposite impression. This was a chaffinch, and the first which I had 

 seen blind. No spectacle could be more painful. The man who 

 would purchase by such a deed of cruelty this victim's song, must have a 

 nature alien to all harmony, a barbarous soul. His attitude of labour 

 and torture rendered his song very painful to me. The worst of it is 

 that it was human; it reminded one of the turns of the head and the 

 ungracious motions of the shoulders which shor-t-sighted persons, or 

 men become blind, indulge in. Such is never the case with those 

 born blind. With a violent but continual effort, grown habitual, the 

 head inclined to the right, with empty eyes he sought the light. The 

 neck was outstretched, to sink again between the shoulders, and 

 swelled out to gain new strength — the neck short, the shoulders 



