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 lew 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- 

 ris) 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 birdcatchers ; 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 founded than the legend current in Ireland, 

 that the larks in the wild gloomy valley of Glanda- 

 lough never sing, having been miraculously silen- 



