58 The Nightingale. 



Such is m}' experience of this bird as seen in the Kentish woods; but Henry 

 Stevenson, speaking of it in Norfolk says: — "Though frequenting the thick cover 

 of our groves and shrubberies, the Nightingale is by no means a shy bird, at 

 least on its first arrival, but sings fearlessly throiighout the day in the most 

 exposed situations. In my own garden, bordered on two sides by public roads, I 

 have known one sing at intervals throughout the day, on the yet leafless branches 

 of an almond tree, perfectly indiflferent to the voices and footsteps of the passers 

 by; and on the ist May, 1864, a most exquisite songster stationed himself on a 

 small tree, in Mount Pleasant lane, close to the footpath, where groups of Sunday 

 walkers, both morning and afternoon, stopped to listen to its 'sweet descants,' and 

 probably for the first time in their lives saw, as well as heard, a Nightingale." 



This last sentence chimes in exactly with my belief. It is not often easy to 

 discover the author of sweet Philomel's discourses ; one needs to look long and 

 carefully ; and perchance, at length, one finds that the singer which one has been 

 seeking for in the undergrowth, is perched among the smaller branches of some 

 lofty elm ; not that it always seeks so high a seat ; for, many a time, on a hot 

 spring morning I have seen it in full song in a plantation of birch trees grown 

 for hop-poles, and among the briars and rank vegetation at their roots I have 

 often sought and sometimes found its nest. 



The song of the Nightingale surpasses in melody and charm that of any 

 other bird ; it commences usually with a long-drawn plaintive phivec, p/nvee, plnvec, 

 pkwee, repeated from four to six times in succession, and followed by a rapid 

 water-bubble chooka, chooka, chooka, chooka, c/iooka, chookee, and then perhaps a 

 series of clear notes commencing ioocy, too, too, too, tooti, more and more rapidlj' 

 uttered and increasing in power ; sometimes the song commences with this 

 tooey, yet more often with the complaining note ; but, without the bird singing 

 at one's side, it is impossible to remember, much less to do justice to, this 

 brilliant musician ; once heard, it can never be mistaken for anything else ; 

 the Blackcap sometimes strives to copy the melod}', and does it fairly well ; 

 but he sings too loud, without the softness of sweet Philomel. On one 

 occasion when out with Mr. Frohawk at twilight, on the skirt of a Kentish 

 wood, we heard a Song-Thrush and a Blackbird trying to outdo a Nightingale : 

 it was all in vain, all three birds were perfect masters of their art ; the 

 Thrush, by introdxicing part of the song of the Nightingale, much improved 

 his own natural performance ; but the Blackbird scorned to copy, he swung cnit 

 his full flowing phrases in grand style, and when he knew himself beaten, 

 in a royal rage he charged the tree in which the little russet songster .sat, 

 and drove it from its retreat ; but the Nightingale, nothing daunted, perched 



