SONGS. 195 
We have ourselves, in many instances, observed 
what might be not inappropriately called a different 
dialect among the same species of song-birds in 
different counties, and even in places a few miles 
distant from each other. This difference is more 
readily remarked in the chaffinch, dunnock, and 
yellow-hammer, than in the more melodious species. 
The chaffinches, for example, in Normandy, we ob- 
served to vary from those of Scotland by several 
notes; and among the yellow-hammers in Ireland, 
England, and Holland, we detected similar differen- 
ces. We once heard a dunnock (Accentor modula- 
vis) in a garden at Blackheath sing so many addi- 
tional notes to its common song, that we concluded 
it was of a different species, till we ascertained, by 
watching the little musician, that it was not other- 
wise distinguished from its less accomplished breth- 
ren. Of the chaffinch, Barrington says that those 
of Essex are more esteemed than others by the 
London birdeatchers ; and Pennant tells us, he knew 
five guineas paid for one which had an uncommon 
note, under which it was intended to train others. 
In Italy, as we learn from M. Montbeillard, the lin- 
nets of Abruzzo and of the March of Ancona are 
preferred. 
It must be from some peculiarities of this kind 
that the nightingales of Persia, Karamania, and 
Greece are said to sing better than those of Italy; 
while the Italian birds are more esteemed by ama- 
teurs than those of France, and the French than 
those of England. According to Pausanias, the 
nightingales which sing near the tomb of Orpheus 
are more melodious than elsewhere, and a similar 
superiority was also popularly believed to belong to 
those of Thrace. Both of these opinions are also 
maintained by Philostratus, though most probably 
no better foundedgthan the legend current in Ireland, 
that the larks in the wild gloomy valley of Glanda- 
lough never sing, having been miraculously silen- 
