THE^ NIGHTINGALE. 47 



greatest favorite of the lovers of the beauty of na- 

 ture. Coleridge wrote thus of this bird : — 



" The merry nightingale, 

 That crowds and hurries and precipitates, 

 With fast, thick warble, his delicious notes, 

 As if he were fearful that an April night 

 Would be too short for him to utter forth 

 His love-chant, and disburden his full soul 

 Of all its music." 



He will sometimes dwell for several seconds on a 

 strain composed of only two or three melancholy 

 tones, beginning in an under-voice, and swelling it 

 gradually by a most superb crescendo to the highest 

 point of strength, then ending it by a dying cadence. 

 His very striking musical talent, surpassing afl other 

 singing-birds, has acquired for him the name of the 

 king of songsters. His food is the same as the 

 American mocking-bird. 



When caged and well treated, they will sing for 

 six or eight months during the year : some begin in 

 December, some in January, and some in February, 

 and sing till the month of July. 



Improper feeding, and other causes, have seemed, 

 so far, to render it almost an impossibility to keep 

 one of these birds more than a few months ; and, 

 for the benefit of the lovers of this bird, we will give 

 an extract from a letter from Mr. George B. Pear- 

 son of Beverly, Mass. He says, — 



"As I write you, four p.m., Jan. 7, 1875, my night- 

 ingale is singing sweetly. He commenced singing 



